Family of fallen MIT Officer Sean Collier running ad in support of members of law enforcement

BOSTON — A full-page newspaper ad with the picture or fallen MIT Police Officer Seann Collier is an appeal to all Americans to give police a chance. It begins with: His name was Sean Collier. He was a police officer in Massachusetts.

Sean’s big sister Nicole Lynch spoke to Boston 25 about her slain brother.

“His smile… everyday, I miss that smile,” Lynch said.

Officer Collier was killed in the line of duty on April 18, 2013, days after the Boston Marathon bombings. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was on the run after the bombings along with his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is accused of shooting and killing Sean in a failed attempt to steal his gun.

In court, the prosecution emphasized that two of the gunshot wounds to Sean’s head fired from the gun were pressed against his skin, and the other was shot from close range.

Lynch says the full page ad which will run in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald starting Friday is meant to show everyone that police like her brother Sean are human.

“Sean was a person behind the badge and his ultimate goal in life was to help people and serve his community and to get to know the people he served,” Lynch said.

Lynch also said there is no political agenda behind this ad.

“There really wasn’t a purpose in the timing. It doesn’t have anything to do with the election. It just is something that’s been weighing heavily on our hearts and minds,” Lynch said.

That concern is over anti-police protests nationwide. However, she agrees some change is needed.

“I can understand where some of these people are coming from and that maybe change does need to happen,” she said.

So Lynch asks people to give police who work to serve us and sometimes pay the ultimate price a chance. She says, “Whether it’s local state or federal level they are serving us as citizens and if we can even one person to sit back and think about that then I think we achieved what we were looking for.”

The ad is sponsored by several local police organizations, including the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society, Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, and New England Police Benevolent Association.

You can view the ad, which will be published beginning on Friday, below.

Page 1 of Sean Collier Family Ad

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