Boston Area News

MANCHESTER, N.H. (CBS4) ― Police officer Michael Briggs once helped save the man accused of killing him.

In March 2003, Briggs responded to a shooting at a Manchester apartment. The victim was Michael Addison, who was shot in the collarbone, police said. Briggs was the first officer on the scene; he started giving first aid to Addison.

Addison, 26, of Manchester, is charged with capital murder in the shooting death of Briggs, 35, who died Tuesday. Addison was arrested in Boston on Monday and remains jailed there on $2 million bail while he fights his return to New Hampshire, where he could be sentenced to death if convicted.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin said the time frame of 30 to 60 days is because of paperwork required to bring Addison back from Massachusetts.

"It just takes as long as it takes" Strelzin said Thursday, noting everything could change if Addison decides to waive extradition. Addison's next Boston court date is Nov. 10.

The attorney general's office on Wednesday upgraded charges against Addison from attempted murder to capital murder after autopsy results confirmed that Briggs, gunned down in an inner city alley early Monday, died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Authorities say Briggs was shot 15 minutes before the end of his shift, when he and a fellow bicycle patrol officer responded to a domestic violence call involving a gunshot. Briggs' gun never left his holster, but prosecutors say two other officers shot back, as the gunman escaped.

New Hampshire's death penalty law applies only in limited circumstances, including killing a police officer.

Briggs, a married father of two sons, died at a Manchester hospital. A funeral is planned for Saturday at the stadium that's home to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the minor league baseball team Briggs often took his sons to watch.

Since the shooting, mourners have left bouquets of flowers and signed a guest book near the scene and at other makeshift memorials in a yard nearby and at the police station.

Strelzin said three other police officers were at the scene early Monday when Briggs was fatally wounded. The names of the others and details such as how many shots were fired and by whom have not yet been released.

A neighborhood resident, Jonathan Johnson, 26, said he saw police re-enacting the shooting several hours later. Johnson told the New Hampshire Union Leader he saw one officer grab another by the shoulder, who then spun around and mimicked shooting the officer.

Strelzin declined to confirm that account or whether Addison, a suspect in a rash of violent crimes during the preceding week, was involved in the domestic dispute that drew officers to the area.

Two women allegedly involved in the crime spree were arraigned Wednesday in Nashua District Court on charges stemming from the robbery of a Hudson convenience store last week.

According to court records in Manchester and Nashua, Angela Swist, 28, and Teresia Shipley, 26, rode along with Addison and Antoine Bell-Rogers during the robbery and split the money with the men. They also rode along when the men fired shots at a Manchester apartment building early Sunday morning, court documents said.

Bell-Rogers was with Addison when Briggs was shot, police say, but investigators have declined to say whether the dispute Briggs responded to involved one of the women.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)