Officer wounded in Tsarnaev shootout: Guilty verdicts "big relief"
WOBURN, Mass. -- Richard Donohue, 35, was one of two police officers involved in the gunfight with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A bullet hit Donohue in the leg, severing a major artery; he almost died.
His colleague and friend, MIT police officer Sean Collier, lost his life.
Donohue was driving when the guilty verdicts against Tsarnaev started to come in. He told CBS News he paused when count 19 was announced. That count asked if Tsarnaev's actions resulted in serious bodily injury to Officer Dic Donohue.
"And of course when number 19 pops up and it's your name on the screen and you see that it's guilty, it's definitely a big relief," said Donohue.
He was in the courtroom for much of the trial, able to see Tsarnaev's face during the proceedings.
"That's the guy," Donohue said, describing his reaction to seeing the man who had almost killed him. "That's the guy that was involved in killing my friend. That's the guy that changed so many lives. That's the guy that took lives and injured people and carried out a heinous and destructive act in the city of Boston."
Donohue told CBS News he has practically no memory of the shootout after the bombings but he suffers from severe pain as well as nerve damage.
As for whether he wants Tsarnaev to receive the death penalty, he said at this point he'd rather not comment.