Dic Donohue, injured in Watertown shootout, returns to work

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Officer Richard "Dic" Donohue is returning to work for the MBTA Transit Police on Friday.

FOX25's cameras were in Watertown the night Donohue was shot fighting off the marathon bombers. Our Robert Goulston spoke to him as he regained his strength at Spaulding Rehab. Two years later, the transit officer is back on the job and with a new title.

"I was happy to be pinned by my family," he said. "To see my friends in the crowd and one of the officers who helped save my life was in the crowd."

Donohue has new stripes on his sleeve. The hero officer is now a sergeant. We talked to him right after his big ceremony outside Transit Police Headquarters.

"Still kinda strange being called Sergeant Donohue right away," he said. "It's only been an hour or so. I have to get used to that a little bit."

Donohue was one of the first officers on scene in Watertown when the bombing suspects were stopped by police. The scene turned into a shoot out and Donohue took a round to his groin area. He lost so much blood he nearly died. Fellow officers helped save his life. Our Mark Ockerbloom talked to him last year when he was making huge progress with his recovery.

"Things may eventually come back to me but right now I don't remember too much," Donohue told FOX25. "I've been told what happened but I don't have first hand memory of just about anything."

Donohue told us Friday that he had to weed through 5,300 emails when he returned to work. And he's excited about his new challenge as a sergeant.

"It took quite some time to really digest. Even now and then I think about, just think about how crazy it was and how lucky I am to be alive. And how lucky I am that certain people took certain actions because you take one person out of the equation and I might not be sitting here," he said.

Donohue has been back at work for about a month. Right now he is primarily working in house but he does plan to get back out on the street.

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photos of the ceremony.

Cox Media Group