Star Telegram
By Deanna Boyd
Posted Wednesday, Jul. 24, 2013
Tyler Holder was only about 6 when a family dispute prompted Tyler’s mother, Kimberly, and her twin brother to cut off contact with their father and his new wife, Gina. He would not set eyes on his grandson again until Tuesday, when the now 17-year-old teen’s picture was flashed on every local news website and TV station, reporting he’d been shot in the head as officers tried to arrest him for the alleged sexual assault and suffocation of 6-year-old Alanna Gallagher.
‘It breaks everybody’s heart’
In addition to a capital murder charge Tyler Holder already faces in Alanna’s death, investigators on Wednesday obtained an attempted capital murder warrant against the teen for allegedly shooting Arlington police Detective Charles Lodatto as investigators attempted to arrest him Tuesday morning.
A ‘wild child’
Tyler Holder seemed to have little if any relationship with his father, identified in court documents as Glenn Geisen. In fact, Geisen told Tarrant County District Clerk officials in a 2009 letter that he was not even aware he had a child in Texas until being served two weeks earlier with a citation indicating that child support was being sought.
A ‘stoner’ and ‘knucklehead’
Neighbors have described Holder as a “stoner,” “troublemaker” and knucklehead” known for causing criminal mischief around the neighborhood. Holder’s Facebook page contained several references to his love of smoking weed and photographs showing him smoking.
‘Not a little baby anymore’
“I keep saying grandbaby,” said Gina Holder. “Seeing him on TV, compared to the last time we saw him, he’s a grown man now. He’s not a little baby anymore.” Jeff Holder began crying as he said he wants to somehow make amends to those hurt by this tragedy. “I figured the best thing I can do is, once he gets well and out of the hospital and gets his sentence — whatever it’s going to be — I’m going to try to talk to an evangelist I know, see if I can go counsel with the boy and tell him that there’s a God that loves him,” Jeff Holder said. “Satan hates him and intends to destroy him but there’s a God that loves him and wants to protect and take him in.”