Officer Who Died Year After Boston Marathon Shootout Honored

The name of a police patrolman who was wounded by shrapnel during a confrontation with the Boston Marathon bombers and suffered a fatal brain aneurysm a year later has been added to a memorial for Massachusetts police officers.

Officer Dennis Simmonds suffered a head injury when brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonated an explosive device during a shootout in Watertown days after the April 2013 marathon bombing.

In April 2014, Simmonds collapsed and died while working out at the Boston Police Academy gym. He was 28.

A state medical panel says the aneurysm likely was related to the earlier injury.

Simmonds was among those honored Friday at a Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial ceremony.

Boston police Commissioner William Evans calls Simmonds a hero.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted, apologized and was sent to prison.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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