They went to work for two different police forces, but in a tragic coincidence the two cops who became friends while attending the same police academy shared a bloody fate when they were both allegeldy gunned down by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects -- killing one officer and critically injuring the other.
MBTA Transit Police officer Richard Donohue, 33, who is married and has a 7-month-old son, graduated from the Transit Police-run Municipal Police Officers Academy in 2010, the same year that Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier graduated.
"They were friends," T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.
Donohue, who was rushed to Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge at about 1 a.m. yesterday, was listed in critical but stable condition after undergoing emergency surgery for a single gunshot wound, hospital spokesman Michael O'Connell said.
Collier died after being ambushed by the terror suspects late Thursday night.
Donohue was wounded during a shootout in Watertown early yesterday in which one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed.
"Officer Donohue never hesitated in fully engaging the terrorists in order to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth. I am extremely proud of him, and cannot say enough about his heroic actions," T Police Chief Paul MacMillan said in a statement yesterday.
"Officer Donohue represents the best that the law enforcement profession has to offer, and he exemplifies the dedication and commitment of the MBTA Transit Police Department."
Donohue, who T police said had attended the Virginia Military Institute, received a commendation in January for helping save a man who was stabbed in the throat at the Chinatown T station Dec. 15.
MacMillan said Donohue's actions that December day "saved a life."
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
