Police in New Orleans are now on a manhunt for a suspect who managed to escape after grabbing a police officer's gun and fatally shooting the officer.

Police Chief Michael Harrison said that the officer, 45-year-old Daryle Holloway, died at a hospital after succumbing to his injuries. The suspect, Travis Boys, 33, had been arrested for aggravated assault charge and was being taken to jail, according to the Associated Press.

The incident took place on a Saturday morning when Boys managed to get his hands - that were handcuffed behind his back -  to the front and grab a hold of Holloway's weapon, Harrison said.

Boys then moved to the front seat of the car via an opening in the cage that separates the front and back car seats, shot Holloway, then fled the scene after the car crashed into a pole.

"This despicable, cowardly act represents the lowest of the low. Killing an officer in the line of duty is an attack on our community that will not stand," Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, said in a statement, according to Reuters.