The man charged in a deadly shooting last month outside a downtown nightclub made a brief court appearance Thursday under tight courtroom security.

Rashawn T. Anderson, 18, appeared in Douglas County District Court shackled at the hands and feet and accompanied by at least six armed security officers.

Anderson is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the Feb. 5 shooting death of 46-year-old Robert E. Williams outside The Granada, 1020 Mass.

He had said after his arrest last week that he planned to hire his own attorney. But in court Thursday he told Judge Paula Martin that he hadn’t been able to, and Martin appointed public defender Mark Manna to represent him.

Manna is a salaried member of the state’s death-penalty defense team, but Anderson is not facing the death penalty. Rather, judges in Douglas County have been directed by the state to appoint death-penalty defenders in high-level felony cases instead of using private attorneys who bill the state by the hour.

Martin scheduled Anderson’s next hearing for March 9.