NEW YORK - Three suspects in the brazen traffic stop shooting of two police officers returned to court on Monday to face first-degree murder charges after one of the victim's lost a five-day fight for his life.

The grieving parents of Officer Russel Timoshenko sat in the front row of a Brooklyn courtroom packed with police officers for an arraignment of the three men, who were originally charged last week with attempted murder. Leonid and Tatyana Timoshenko joined in a thunderous applause after the shackled suspects were ordered held without bail and led back to jail.

Prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi had told the judge the men were facing upgraded charges “for their collective role in this outright execution.” She said a grand jury has been impaneled in the case.

Timoshenko, 23, was shot in the head and died at a hospital on Saturday with his family at his side. Speaking for his parents, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said Monday that they “appreciate the prayers and the words of support.”

None of the suspects - Lee Woods, Robert J. Ellis and Dexter Bostic - spoke or entered a plea during the brief appearance before state Supreme Court Justice Richard Allman. But attorneys for Woods and Ellis made competing claims that their clients were driving a stolen car while the other two men opened fire on the officers without warning.

Pennsylvania state troopers captured Ellis last week in the Pocono Mountains, ending an intense manhunt that spanned three days and several states. Bostic had been caught a day earlier in the same remote spot where they had tried to go into hiding, police said.

Authorities say Bostic and Ellis, both 34-year-old ex-convicts, were riding in a stolen sport utility vehicle driven by Woods, 29, early on July 9 when it was pulled over by police in Brooklyn.

As Timoshenko and Officer Herman Yan approached either side of the vehicle, Bostic shot Timoshenko in the face with a .45-caliber pistol and Ellis shot at Yan with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, police said. Yan, 26, was hit in the chest but was saved by his bullet-resistant vest.

In court, prosecutors have alleged all three men have made incriminating statements. They also said investigators had lifted Ellis' fingerprints off a box of takeout fried chicken; a bag ditched near the scene contained the box and three weapons: the .45-caliber, the 9mm and a Tec-9 pistol.

But defense attorney Danielle Eaddy repeated her claim on Monday that Ellis was driving the car, not Woods, and insisted he was not one of the two shooters. Moments later, Woods' attorney, Patrick Michael Megaro, told the court, “My client was not the triggerman.”

If convicted, the men face life in prison.

Union officials called on federal prosecutors to take over the case so the suspects could face the death penalty. But a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Robert Nardoza, said Monday that the move was not being considered.

“The case is going to be prosecuted by the Brooklyn (district attorney),” he said.