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Boston police officers expected to survive, need more surgery

BOSTON — Two Boston Police officers remain in critical condition at Mass General Hospital after a shootout in East Boston Wednesday night, but officials say they are expected to survive.

But both officers will need more surgery, according to Police Commissioner William Evans.

Officers Richard Cintolo and Matt Morris went to the home in East Boston after a man reported his roommate was threatening him with a knife -- reportedly over an argument about the thermostat.

Police say Kirk Figueroa was armed with a shotgun and wearing body armor when Officers Cintolo and Morris showed up.

Officer Morris was shot in the thigh and police say an officer pinched a blood vessel to slow Morris' bleeding until a tourniquet could be tied onto his leg.

Both officers were taken to the hospital in critical condition and were taken straight into surgery.

While both were in "critical but stable" condition, according to a police spokesperson, they also were scheduled to have more surgery Friday evening.

Officer Cintolo is a 27-year veteran of the Boston Police Department and lives in Winthrop.

"Thank god they're still alive," Jim Leahy said. He was a Boston officer for 35 years and knows both Cintolo and Morris well.  "My prayers go to the family. I know Cintolo. I know his father. I worked with young Cintolo too."

Leahy says he knows Officer Morris because he grew up in Dorchester.

"I knew his mother and father when he grew up down the street," Leahy said. "Just a regular kid from Dorchester."

Morris is a 12-year veteran of the Boston Police Department and was awarded the highest medal the state can give an officer for bravery in 2006.

Morris was working in plain clothes in Dec. of 2005 when a masked gunman starting shooting at a group of people at a bus stop on Blue Hill Avenue. Morris and another officer blocked the gunman from leaving the scene and got him to surrender.

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