QUEENS — An off-duty NYPD officer fatally shot a man who lured him to Springfield Gardens with a Craigslist ad about a car for sale then tried to rob him with a realistic-looking air pistol Monday night, police said.
The transit officer, who's been on the force for nine years, got off work about 9:45 p.m. and went to meet two men in a white BMW outside 177-39 145th Ave., near 177th Place, about 45 minutes later, an NYPD spokesman said.
The duo got out of the car and were talking with the off-duty officer about the BMW when one of them, Devon Holder, 30, pulled an air pistol, which the officer thought was a real gun, and demanded his belongings, sources said.
The officer handed over his wallet, which didn't contain his badge, sources said.
Holder pocketed the wallet, the officer pulled his own gun and shot him, sources said.
The other suspect leaped back into the BMW and fled the scene, police said. There were no immediate arrests.
Holder, who lived in Canarsie, was taken to Jamaica Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
He wasn't carrying any ID, but police managed to identify him by running his finger prints through criminal databases, sources said.
Holder has been arrested 11 times before on charges including arson, petit larceny and burglary in Elizabeth, N.J., Philadelphia, Penn., and Brooklyn, sources said.
He was most recently arrested for a burglary in October 2012, police said.
The off-duty officer was treated at North Shore-LIJ, police said.
