If Governor Pataki had his way, the man responsible for fatally shooting a police officer on Monday – and is also charged with injuring another officer less than two weeks earlier – would be executed if convicted.

“In my view, when a police officer is killed in the line of duty by someone who murders them while committing a crime, the death penalty is an appropriate remedy, and I’m disappointed that it’s on hold because of a decision of our highest court,” Governor Pataki said after yesterday’s ground-breaking for the new Goldman Sachs headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

Mayor Bloomberg has a different view.

“I’d rather lock somebody up and throw away the key and put them in hard labor, the ultimate penalty that the law will allow, but I’m opposed to the death penalty,” he said at the ground-breaking.

Because the suspect in the officer’s murder, Allan Cameron, was charged by the Kings County district attorney’s office rather than at the federal level, he cannot face execution under current state law. However, another suspect in a New York case, Ronell Wilson, who allegedly gunned down two Staten Island detectives while they were conducting an undercover gun-trafficking investigation, faces the death penalty if he is convicted in the federal case.

New York’s capital punishment law was reinstated in 1995. Last year, the New York Court of Appeals – the state’s highest court – ruled that a key clause in the statute was unconstitutional. To make the law enforceable, the state Legislature would need to amend the law. There have been no executions in the state since the law was reinstated.

Mr. Cameron was arraigned yesterday on charges of attempted murder, three counts of assault, and two counts each of robbery and criminal possession of a weapon after allegedly shooting an off-duty police officer, Wiener Philippe, during a November 19 robbery in Crown Heights near his home. Officer Philippe identified Mr. Cameron in a photo and a lineup, the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, told reporters during a briefing yesterday.

His next court date is tomorrow, according to the district attorney’s office. Mr. Cameron’s attorney, Edward Friedman, did not return calls seeking comment.

Mr. Cameron – who police said has been arrested four times in New York City for petty crimes and in Philadelphia in 2003 for aggravated assault – also was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and failure to obey a traffic control signal after allegedly shooting Officer Dillon Stewart. The officer and his partner, Officer Paul Lipka, followed a driver who ran a red light in East Flatbush, the criminal complaint says. The driver allegedly fired five shots at the officers’ undercover vehicle, police said. One shot struck Stewart in the armpit in an area his bulletproof vest did not cover. He died after extensive heart surgery. The funeral is expected to be held this week.

Police arrested Mr. Cameron in his girlfriend’s apartment nearby and found his vehicle – allegedly containing 53 bags of marijuana – in the garage where police lost sight of him.

The protective vest Stewart was wearing has been the topic of some discussion. Although the vest has not been deemed defective, Mayor Bloomberg said he talked to Mr. Kelly about its design. The vests have been modified since becoming mandatory for New York police officers in 1988. “There was a time where there was a reluctance to wear them because they were too hot,” Mr. Kelly said.

One police expert suggested the Police Department bulletproof the windows of the police vehicles, as outfitting police officers with vests that provide greater coverage is impractical because they are cumbersome and heavy.

“There is no way to protect a police officer 100%,” the chairwoman of the law and police science department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Maria Haberfeld, said. “This is something doable.” In addition, she said the Police Department could make it a department policy that police officers must keep their windows shut during car chases. Stewart had his window open during Monday’s chase, police said.

“It’s a well-known risk at a traffic stop you can expect anything and everything,” Ms. Haberfeld said. “Traffic stops generate verbal and physical violence.”

The founder of a company that builds armored vehicles said that he has long been pressing police departments to install bulletproof windows.

“How many police officers have to die before they install bulletproof windows?” Jack Maita, the founder of Lasco International Group, said of police departments in general.