Trevon Kyron Thomas was arrested just hours after detectives said they wanted to interview him in connection with the shooting in Nottingham earlier this week of probationary officer Ms Bown.
Mr Thomas, 24, from the Bilborough area of Nottingham, was held after police boarded a aircraft at Heathrow airport at around 11am.
Ms Bown, 23, was shot in the stomach shortly before midnight on Monday while investigating a burglary in the Lenton area of the city.
This morning, Ms Bown was awake and in a stable condition at the Queen's medical centre in Nottingham after undergoing a second emergency operation yesterday.
Ms Bown had the operation after a "setback" in her condition. She had undergone five hours of life-saving emergency surgery on Tuesday.
She is nearing the end of her two-year probation period and had just started working on the beat in the city centre when she was shot.
Ms Bown was with an experienced male colleague following up a report of a burglary when the pair spotted a suspect. She was hit in the lower abdomen, below the level of her body armour, just seconds after leaping out of the passenger seat of her patrol car.
Officers have so far said it was unclear whether the gunman was in any way connected with the burglary at the house in Lenton Boulevard.
Her family have kept a vigil at her bedside since she was injured.
