MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – A man suspected of shooting and critically wounding a police officer has been arrested in Boston, police said Monday.
Michael “Stix” Addison was arrested without incident about 5:30 p.m. in an apartment in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood, said David Estrada, a police spokesman. A massive search had been going on for him all day as dozens of the officer’s colleagues stood vigil at a Manchester hospital.
The wounded officer, Michael Briggs, was honored last year for rescuing people from a fire in 2004.
SWAT teams from state and city police searched a wide area for Addison, 26, of Manchester.
When Briggs was shot around 2:45 a.m. Monday, Manchester police were looking for Addison on a reckless conduct warrant. Police said the charge stemmed from Addison being with a gunman who allegedly fired several shots at an apartment building in Manchester early Sunday. No one was hit.
Police said Briggs was shot while on his patrol bicycle near the intersection of Lake and Lincoln Streets. He remained in critical condition Monday afternoon at Elliot Hospital, a spokeswoman said.
Gov. John Lynch and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte visited and said their hearts go out to Briggs’ family.
In November 2003, Addison and another man pleaded guilty to criminal restraint for holding another man against his will in Derry in a drug dispute, www.Unionleader.com reported.
Also Monday, the paper reported that a Manchester restaurant clerk who was robbed at gunpoint last week identified Addison as the robber who fired two shots during the holdup.
An Internet search found a previous address for Addison in Brockton, Mass.
A message left at a phone number belonging to family members there was not immediately returned.
A man who lives about a block away from the shooting scene said he and his wife heard six shots around 3 a.m. Monday, followed by yelling and arguing.
“We heard six loud bangs go off,” said Robert Tarr, who was on his back porch taking in laundry from the line when he heard the shots. He said he quickly called police.
His wife, Pauline, was inside, sitting at her computer desk when the shots rang out.
“It took me right off my chair,” she said, saying she was worried about the safety of their four children.
Other neighborhood residents said they heard seven, eight or even 10 shots.
Nicole Black, 24, who was staying at her boyfriend’s place nearby, told www.unionleader.com that after the shots woke her, she grabbed binoculars and looked outside.
“The first thing I saw was that cop lying down right there where the pool of blood was,” Black said. “There were maybe five cops around him. One was saying, ‘Just breathe, just breathe.’ You could tell they were trying to get this guy to hold on.”
Black also saw a man lying on the ground, handcuffed, she said.
Tarr, a member of a neighborhood watch group working with police to combat prostitution and drug dealing, said things had been getting better – until now.
“Now we’re back to square one again. It’s going to make people really on edge,” he said.
AP-ES-10-16-06 1856EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
