To honor Briggs, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch directed that all American flags in the state be lowered to half-staff.
On campus, the United States flag was lowered to half-mast and the Dartmouth flag was taken down.
The Dartmouth flag is always taken down when the American flag is at half-staff, according to John Gratiot, associate vice president of the Office of Facilities Operations and Management. The only exception to this rule is when a member of the Dartmouth community dies, in which case both the Dartmouth and American flags are lowered to half-staff.
Pamela Walsh, spokeswoman for the governor's office, said that while there is a federal law that specifies on what occasions flags must be lowered, the governor has the authority to select additional times to lower the flag.
The last time the American flag was lowered by government order was this past February, when it was flown at half-staff to honor Coretta Scott King.
Originally the flag was ordered to half-mast until further notice, which is unusual since flags are typically lowered two or three days at the most. The indefinite time frame was set because at the time of the statement, the date of Briggs' funeral was still unknown. Since the funeral occurred on Saturday, the Dartmouth flag will be raised again.
Briggs, who had been a city police officer for five years, was shot while approaching a suspect in an alley in Manchester. He and a fellow officer were responding to a report about a shot fired in an apartment building.
New Hampshire State Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said she plans to charge the accused killer, Michael Addison, 26, with capital murder, and to seek the death penalty. It is unlikely that Addison will receive a death sentence, however, as no one in New Hampshire is currently on death row and the last execution in the state took place 67 years ago.
The incident adds to a list of several recent violent crimes implicating Addison.
