Sean Collier remembered one year after Boston bombing

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 19 (UPI) -- Slain Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer Sean Collier was remembered in a ceremony Friday, one year after he was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombers.

Some 1,600 people gathered at the North Court of the MIT campus near the site of the 26-year-old's shooting. Among the crowd were U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.

During the ceremony, the school announced plans to build a permanent memorial at the site of the shooting to Collier.

The tribute's design is inspired by the image of an open hand. On it will be two inscriptions, one reading "In the line of duty, Sean Collier April 18, 2013." The other will be from the eulogy delivered by Collier's brother, Robert Rogers.

"Love long like he would. Big hearts, big smiles, big service, all love."

The memorial will turn "a site of tragedy into a site of reflection," said J. Meejin Yoon, associate professor in MIT's architecture department.

[Boston Globe]