Shields, a five-year veteran, was wearing a bulletproof vest but was hit in the neck area by a shotgun blast as he approached the rear of a house.
Brown, a reputed member of the Bloods street gang, was arrested less than 13 hours later in East Orange after police received a telephone tip.
At the time of Shields' shooting, Brown was awaiting trial in Essex County on robbery and weapons charges and was free on bail. He later pleaded guilty to those charges.
Nicknamed "Trouble," according to police, Brown's record included an arrest by Shields when he was 17. Although Brown was a juvenile, the case was moved to adult court and led to the robbery and weapons charges.
Shields, 32, was the first Orange officer killed in the line of duty since Officer Joyce Carnegie in 1999.
Shields was a married father of three whose father, Columbus Shields, retired as an Orange officer in 1999. An uncle, John Banks, is a police officer in Newark.
