BOSTON (AP) - 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.
Cox Media Group
