The suspects charged in the shooting of two police officers in Brooklyn last week will return to court today to face charges of murder now that one of the officers has died, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said yesterday.

Prior to the death of Officer Russel Timoshenko on Saturday, the three suspects alleged to have incited the gunfight that led to his death faced attempted murder charges.

With substantial criminal rap sheets and investigators looking into other high-profile crimes the suspects may have committed, experts say the suspects, Dexter Bostic, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, would have likely faced the possibility of life in prison regardless of the stronger charges.

Because New York State does not now have a death penalty statute, some officials have called for state legislators to reinstate it. Other experts have speculated that the case could be heard in federal court, where the suspects could face the death penalty.

However, in a move that would virtually guarantee that the death penalty is not sought, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday he thinks the Brooklyn district attorney should prosecute the case.

“This is not a federal crime; this should be in the local courts,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I have complete confidence in the district attorneys and in the common sense of the people who are picked to be on jury duty in our city and our state.”

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has said it will prosecute the case.

A criminal defense attorney who is not representing the defendants, Benjamin Brafman, said the chances of the case going federal are slim.

“It’s possible to turn it into a federal racketeering case, but it would create so many issues,” he said. “It sounds like they have a pretty strong case in Brooklyn.” Timoshenko, who investigators believe was shot twice in the face by Bostic on Monday, died in a hospital bed on Saturday afternoon after his brain ceased to function.

After speaking at a church in Harlem yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg recounted an emotional meeting with Timoshenko’s crying mother on the evening after her son died at King’s County Hospital.

“She kept saying, ‘Why my son?'” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I said, ‘I can’t answer why its your son. I don’t know why God takes some and not others.'”

A date for Timoshenko’s funeral has not been officially announced, but a police source said it would take place on Thursday. Mr. Bloomberg yesterday also reiterated his fight to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which prevents the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from sharing gun tracing information between local law enforcement.

“Its another reminder to all of us we just have too many guns in the street and shame on Congress,” he said. “We’ve just got to get guns out of the hands of criminals, it’s not a Second Amendment issue.”