NEW YORK - An officer shot in the face during a Brooklyn traffic stop has died, the New York Police Department said Saturday.

Russel Timoshenko, 23, died at Kings County Hospital from the injuries he suffered early Monday when he and his partner stopped a stolen SUV in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, according to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Timoshenko had been paralyzed, suffered brain swelling and was unable to breathe on his own. His partner, Herman Yan, hit in the chest and arm but saved by his bullet-resistant vest, was released from the hospital Tuesday. Kelly said Timoshenko died while on life support.

“It is a very sad day for all of us,” Kelly said.

Timoshenko's family was at his side at the time of death, and a processional of officers, including Yan, filed past the body to pay condolences.

Kings County Hospital doctor Robert Kurtz said the officer died while on life support.

“The activity in his brain ceased,” he said. “From the second those bullets hit, he was unable to breathe and unable to move a muscle in his body.”

Two suspects captured in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania were charged in the assault; a third man suspected of driving the getaway car is being held in New York.

Robert J. Ellis and Dexter Bostic were ordered held without bail Friday at a Brooklyn hearing.

The suspects faced charges of attempted murder, assault on a police officer and other crimes; but Kelly said Saturday charges would be raised.

Pennsylvania state troopers captured Ellis early Thursday morning in the Pocono Mountains, ending an intense manhunt that spanned three days and several states. Bostic was caught near the same remote spot on Wednesday.

Investigators said the two had a friend slip them out of the city by car shortly after the shooting. After pooling their money to fill up on gas in Connecticut, they agreed to have the unidentified driver keep going until there was a half a tank, then turn back and leave them behind in the wilderness, police said.

“They were literally hiding in the woods in a desperate attempt to avoid apprehension,” said prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi. Authorities say Bostic and Ellis, both 34-year-old ex-convicts, were riding in a stolen SUV driven by a third man, Lee Woods, when police pulled the vehicle over early Monday morning in Brooklyn.

As officers Yan and Timoshenko approached either side of the vehicle, Boston shot Timoshenko in the face with a .45-caliber pistol, and Ellis fired on Yan with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, police said.

Prosecutors said in court that both Bostic and Ellis had made incriminating statements about the shooting. They also said investigators had lifted Ellis's fingerprints off a Popeye's Chicken box that was found - along with the guns used in the shooting and a third firearm - in a bag ditched near the shooting scene.

But defense attorney Danielle Eaddy said Ellis was driving the car, not Woods, and insisted Ellis had not fired on the officer.

“Yes, he was behind the wheel of the car,” she said, “but that's a far cry from attempted murder in the first degree.”

The lawyer also accused police of assaulting her client after his arrest.

Police spokesman Paul Browne denied police had abused the prisoner and said forensic evidence supported charges that Woods was the driver.

AP-ES-07-14-07 1915EDT