Sean Collier, RIP

The injuries and deaths resulting from the Boston rampage of the brothers Tsarnaevev won’t be lost in our relief over the capture of Tsarvaev the younger without further mayhem last night. The Boston Globe provides a brief profile of the MIT police officer “who was gunned down by the savages who perrpetrated the Boston Marathon bombing,” as Peter Wehner aptly puts it. Wehner directs attention to the Boston Globe story on Officer Collier:

American flags began to appear on a cordoned-off block of Curtis Street as the news spread that 26-year-old Sean Collier, an MIT police officer who lived in a three-story house there, had been killed in a late-night confrontation with the two suspects in the deadly Boston Marathon bombing.

Through tears, his roommate — who trained with Collier at the police academy and did not provide his name — said Collier was “awesome,” his only fault being that was he was too brave.

“He was the guy who went to help,” his roommate said. “The best guy got shot down by the biggest scumbags.”

In a statement, Collier’s family expressed their grief.

“We are heartbroken by the loss of our wonderful and caring son and brother, Sean Collier,” the family wrote. “Our only solace is that Sean died bravely doing what he committed his life to — serving and protecting others. We are thankful for the outpouring of support and condolences offered by so many people.”

Expressions of love for Collier came from all corners of his life. MIT police chief John DiFava called Collier “a home run,” with every quality one could want in a police officer. A distraught student rode her bike to the MIT police station Friday morning to give her condolences after hearing of the death of the police officer, who had become a friend to many graduate students.

Somerville police Lt. William Rymill, who had known Collier for five years, said that in just two months, he would likely have fulfilled a longheld dream. Collier had scored high on a civil service exam, and was likely to be called to join the Somerville police department in June.

“Anybody could relate to him. Sean could talk to anybody,” Rymill said. “The girls here in dispatch haven’t stopped crying.”

The Globe quotes DiFava one more time: “Besides this being absolutely heartwrenching, it’s also a tremendous loss of a huge talent.” He was a special guy. Please read the whole thing. RIP.

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