MIT Officer Killed Is Sean Collier and Attended Same Boston Gym As Suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev As Both Spent Time At Somerville Boxing Club

Apr 19, 2013 04:36 PM EDT

Boston Marathon suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were identified on Thursday after leading police on a chase in Watertown and earlier in the night one of the suspects shot and killed an MIT policie officer named Sean Collier, who was just 26-years-old.

According to USA Today, Collier was responding to a disturbance call on campus and was fired upon by the two suspects, which killed him. MIT police chief John DiFava said Collier was a dedicated officer and following the wild night, authorities killed one of the suspects while another was still at large. The two brothers led police on a chase that resulted in the death of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had a connection to Collier through boxing.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an amateur boxer and athlete and worked out at the same gym at one point that Collier later volunteered at. Collier was deal on arrival at the hospital on Thursday, as he found 10 minutes after the gun shots were called in and he joined the police at MIT in January of last year.  

According to the Washington Post, Collier started volunteering at the Somerville Boxing Club sometime last year, which is the same club that Tamerlan also trained at, although the owner said that it was unlikely that they ever crossed paths, as Tamerlan had not been there in years.

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