Mass. State Police Sgt. Sean Murphy Relieved of Duty

Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Sean Murphy has been relieved of duty, just a few hours after the 25-year veteran of the Massachusetts State Police gave Boston magazine hundreds of photographs that he took from behind the scenes of the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Though he’s been relieved of duty, Murphy has not been fired. The status of his duty is to be reviewed next week.

Two lieutenants in an unmarked cruiser and a sergeant in a marked cruiser arrived at Murphy’s home about 7:40 tonight and, during about 20 minutes at his home, took the following: his gun, badge, ammunition, handcuffs, baton, bulletproof vest, cameras, police ID, license to fire arms, pepper spray, cellphone and computer. Murphy was also ordered not to speak to the press or discuss the capture of Tsarnaev with anyone else.

Murphy turned over the images to us because he was upset with the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, which he feels glamorizes Tsarnaev. He wanted people to see what he feels is more accurate portrait of a terrorist.

“As a professional law-enforcement officer of 25 years, I believe that the image that was portrayed by Rolling Stone magazine was an insult to any person who has every worn a uniform of any color or any police organization or military branch, and the family members who have ever lost a loved one serving in the line of duty,” he said. “The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

“I hope that the people who see these images will know that this was real. It was as real as it gets. This may have played out as a television show, but this was not a television show. Officer Dick Donohue almost gave his life. Officer Sean Collier did give his life. These were real people, with real lives, with real families. And to have this cover dropped into Boston was hurtful to their memories and their families. I know from first-hand conversations that this Rolling Stone cover has kept many of them up—again. It’s irritated the wounds that will never heal—again. There is nothing glamorous in bringing more pain to a grieving family.”