CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Like many other youngsters, Sean Collier wanted to be a police officer. Unlike most, he brought that dream to life – and then died doing it, becoming a central character in the gripping hunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
The three people killed by the twin explosions, along with the many others who lost limbs, have gotten the lion’s share of the attention in the year since the bombings. The loved ones of Collier, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who investigators say was shot by the bombing suspects, are this week remembering a brother and doting uncle who seemed destined to enter law enforcement.
Additional Photos
“I can remember he was 2 or 3 years old running around the house making a siren sound yelling, ‘You’re breaking the law’ and trying to arrest us for not doing what we were supposed to do,” said Nicole Lynch, his sister. “His role in the family was to not only protect all of us, but to make sure we were doing the right things.”
This year, Team Collier Strong, a group of 25 friends and family members, will run the marathon to raise money for a scholarship fund named for him. And the college held a remembrance ceremony Friday, exactly a year after his death, and unveiled plans for a permanent memorial.
Collier was called in to help with dispatch when news of the bombings broke in Boston, across the Charles River from the MIT campus in Cambridge.
“Sean knew that we were all worriers in the family, so he texted us all and said: ‘I’m fine, but I’m very busy. I’m at work,’ ” Lynch said.
Days later, he was shot and killed in his cruiser hours after the FBI released photos and video of brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the bombing suspects. Investigators say they shot him while attempting to take his gun. He was 26.
Collier was the fifth of six children. He studied criminal justice at Salem State University, working for a time as a civilian at the Somerville Police Department.
The MIT Sean Collier Scholarship Fund will help put one person a year through a criminal justice program.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.