CAMBRIDGE (AP) — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer said to have been shot and killed by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects has been identified as 26-year-old Sean Collier, a 2009 graduate of Salem State University.
A press release from the university said Collier graduated with honors with a criminal justice degree. The release reads:
“We are deeply saddened to learn that Sean Collier, a member of Salem State’s class of 2009, was killed last night in the line of duty. He was a campus police officer at MIT. Sean received a criminal justice degree and graduated with honors. Our thoughts and sympathy go out to Sean’s family as well as all those affected by the recent tragic events in Boston.”
Kristen Kuehnle, chairwoman of the SSU Criminal Justice Department, told The Daily Item that Collier was one of her students in a 2008 summer course.
“I had him in the summer Women In Criminal Justice course,” Kuehnle said, noting the course is one all students in the program must take to learn about women’s issues, those concerning professionals in law enforcement as well as female offenders.
“He was an exceptional student, outgoing, very bright, humorous and well-rounded,” Kuehnle said. “Sean had a great sense of humor but he was also a very serious student. He wanted nothing more than to be a police officer.”
Kuehnle said Collier was one of only a handful, typically 15 percent, of criminal justice students who graduate with honors from SSU.
“It is an elite group,” she said.
The Middlesex district attorney’s office says Collier was a Somerville resident who had worked at MIT since January 2012. Before that, he was a civilian employee of the Somerville Police Department.
MIT Police Chief John DiFava says Collier was a dedicated officer who was liked by his colleagues and the MIT community.
Collier was found shot several times in his vehicle in Cambridge at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday. He was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital.
View photos of the manhunt for the bombing suspects
Authorities say he was shot by the two suspects in Monday’s marathon bombings.
Daily Item Editor Sean Leonard is reporting on this story and will have more in Saturday’s edition of The Daily Item
