Manchester – A Manchester police officer has been murdered.

Bicycle patrol officer Michael Briggs, 35, died this afternoon. He was shot in the head yesterday while approaching a man wanted for a domestic violence incident.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said this afternoon that she will seek the death penalty for the man believed to have fired the fatal shot.

Briggs, 35, had 15 minutes left on his shift when he was wounded about 2:45 a.m. on Lincoln Street, between Lake Avenue and Central Street. He and another unidentified bicycle patrol officer went there to investigate reports of gunshots being fired during a domestic incident, police said.

Briggs and the other officer were looking for Michael "Stix" Addison, 26, of Manchester, when they spotted him with another man, identified as Antoine Bel Rogers, 21.

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Addison turned and allegedly shot Briggs, who last year was honored for running into a burning building to help rescue residents.

Briggs was taken by ambulance to Elliot Hospital where he was in critical and "very grave" condition, according to authorities last night. His death came this afternoon.

About 15 hours after the shooting, Addison, of Manchester was arrested at his grandmother's house at 22 Beechwood St. in the Dorchester section of Boston. A witness had given him a ride there, police said.

The Boston Herald reported that Addison made himself easy pickings by making several calls on his cell phone yesterday; police were able to track Addison's flight using Global Positioning Satellite. The gray Toyota Camry it is believed Addison fled in turned up abandoned opposite Roxbury District Court, sparking manhunts for him at nearby Dudley Station and at South Station in Boston yesterday afternoon.

ADDISON captured

Addison is charged with the attempted murder of Briggs. He also is charged with an Oct. 11 robbery of the 7-Eleven in Hudson and criminal liability to reckless conduct in a shooting Sunday at 348 Edward J. Roy Drive, where several shots were fired, missing a father and son by inches.

Rogers was arrested at the Lincoln Street crime scene and charged with reckless conduct for the Edward J. Roy Drive shooting. Police are also looking for a third person -- Angela Swist -- for the shooting.

"It's been a very trying day for the police department," said Police Chief John Jaskolka at a news conference last night.

Officers on Briggs' shift headed to the hospital when they finished work yesterday -- as did the officers on the day shift.

Last night, Jaskolka said, many of them were still there.

New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said the shooting of Briggs "reminds us of the dangerous and important work done by police officers across the state who protect us every day."

Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta, who met with Officer Briggs' family yesterday morning, called the incident "a tragedy" and said Briggs and his family are in his prayers.

"I can't tell you how awful it is," said Guinta, who spoke with the media near the crime scene. "It's the most heinous and senseless of acts to shoot at a police officer."

Residents of an eight-block area in the Center City awoke yesterday to find streets blocked off and flak-jacketed police officers, helmeted and with assault weapons, going door-to-door searching for the gunman.

Nicole Black, who was staying at her boyfriend's apartment at 359 Central St., awoke to six gunshots. She grabbed a pair of binoculars and looked out a window to see the downed officer in a pool of blood.

"There were maybe five cops around him," Black said. "One was saying, Just breathe. Just breathe.' You could tell they were trying to get this guy just to hold on."

A handcuffed black man was on the ground nearby, she said.

"I heard him say something about, I was just standing on this corner, trying to get weed for my girl,'" said Black, 24.

"I know this neighborhood," she added. "There's nobody out there at a quarter to three in the morning looking for weed. Not in this neighborhood, no."

Steve Provencher of 439 Lincoln St. heard six to eight shots, a "lot of commotion, a lot of yelling" and called 911.

Ten minutes later, he ventured out to the alley behind his home and ran into officers. They drew their guns and pointed them at him, telling him to "freeze and put my hands in the air." He showed them identification and they told him to get back inside.

Manchester, state police and New Hampshire Highway Patrol cordoned off about an eight-block area.

Some residents leaned out screenless windows or stood on second-floor porch railings to watch officers -- state police in camouflage and city police all in black -- armed with assault rifles and accompanied by police dogs going door-to-door searching for the shooter.

Briggs was one of four Manchester officers honored last year with New Hampshire Hero Awards. On July 25, 2004, the four helped 19 people escape a burning apartment building at 418 Union St., a few blocks from where he was gunned down.

He has been with the department for five years and previously worked as a correctional officer at the Valley Street jail. He also had worked part-time for the Epsom Police Department from 1996 to 2001.

About six hours before Briggs was shot, the owner of a local restaurant also identified Addison as one of two armed men who robbed him last week.

Jose Alfredo Rodríguez, owner of the El Mexicano restaurant on Wilson Street, said Sunday night he and his father both picked out Addison from a police photo array as the man who held a knife on a customer and robbed him of $300. That robbery remains under investigation.

Police knew Addison because they arrested him in Manchester in 2002 and 2004 for being a fugitive from justice in Massachusetts where he was wanted for assault and aggravated assault.

In 2003, Addison was himself a victim of a shooting. Thomas A. Williams, then of 90 Pearl St, Apt. 4, was charged with first-degree assault for shooting him in the right collarbone. Williams later pleaded guilty in Hillsborough County Superior Court to second-degree assault and was sentenced to two to four years.

>> Boston Herald: Friends say Addison 'chose wrong path'

Ruth Cameron and her daughter, Carrie Caron, who live at 267 Cedar St., call Addison a friend.

"He's never violent," said Carrie Caron. She met him about five years ago and said he would "do anything for anybody." The mother of two young children, she said if her children needed anything -- snacks, milk -- "he was there. We had it."

Addison, according to Ruth Caron, "wasn't aggressive. He was just a friend."

Both Carons were at the police station yesterday talking with investigators.

Matt Bolduc, 18, of Manchester, another friend of Addison's, described "Stix" as a cool, humble guy. "He's also unpredictable," he said.

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