Local News

Officials: ‘Highly likely’ officer was hit by friendly fire in Watertown shootout

Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan presented a map of where the Watertown shootout took place. Ally Manning/Boston.com

By Eric Levenson and Allison Manning

June 2, 2015

1 minute to read

Officials said it was “highly likely’’ that MBTA officer Richard “Dic’’ Donohue was shot by a fellow officer during the hectic firefight with Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Watertown in April 2013.

In addition, the officer’s use of deadly force was “warranted and justified,’’ Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said on Tuesday.

The Boston Globe has previously reported that Donohue was shot by friendly fire, but this was the first time officials publicly confirmed that analysis.

Donohue was hit in the leg on the early morning of April 19, 2013, four days after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Police had engaged the Tsarnaev brothers in a shootout, during which the brothers threw bombs and fired 56 shots at officers. As police attempted to apprehend Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev entered a stolen vehicle and sped down the street back toward the officers and his brother.

As Tsarnaev drove past, officers fired across the intersection at the vehicle, Ryan said. Donohue, on the south side of the intersection, was hit during that crossfire. Officials said there were 14 officers who could have fired the shot.

The projectile severed his femoral artery, and Donohue nearly bled to death from the injury. He did not fire his weapon, Ryan said.

Ryan said investigators could not be completely sure whether or not Donohue was hit by a bullet because the projectile remains in his body for medical reasons. It’s possible, she said, that the projectile could have been a fragment of something else.

After intensive recovery over the past two years, Donohue was able to return to service and was promoted to sergeant last month.

Ryan said she still plans to pursue a murder case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the killing of MIT Police officer Sean Collier. She said today that she would put in another request to the federal government to pursue the case once Tsarnaev’s federal trial is formally finished.