I-Team: Transit Police Dissolve SWAT Team That Captured Boston Marathon Bomber

BOSTON (CBS) – The highly trained Transit SWAT team that was once celebrated for capturing Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been dissolved.

Transit Police spend a lot of time training for anything that could happen. And in 2013, the unimaginable did.

Days after the Boston Marathon bombing, the suspects went on to kill MIT Police Officer Sean Collier and in the manhunt Transit Officer Dic Donahue was seriously injured.

In the end, it was the department's SWAT team that arrested surviving suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who shot one of their own.

"We did go visit Officer Donohue. That was the one thing I said to him. I said, 'We got him,'" officer Saro Thompson said at the time.

Now, the I-Team has learned the Transit Police has disbanded its SWAT team. Sources say the specialized unit had not been used on calls much over the last few years. Officers have turned in their equipment.

For a unit that was so highly trained and regarded, sources say the team is disappointed that it has been dissolved.

The I-Team reached out to the Transit Police and were told it had no comment on disbanding the unit.

WBZ-TV also reached out to the Transit Police union, but they did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more
f

We and our partners use cookies to understand how you use our site, improve your experience and serve you personalized content and advertising. Read about how we use cookies in our cookie policy and how you can control them by clicking Manage Settings. By continuing to use this site, you accept these cookies.