Wife: Injured Husband, MBTA Officer Making 'Amazing Strides'

A police officer with Winchester ties who was seriously hurt in a gunfight with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects continues to recover from life-threatening injuries.

Richard "Dic" Donohue Jr., 33, of Woburn, was hit in the thigh April 19 during a shoot-out in Watertown. Authorities are looking into whether Donohue Jr. may have been hit by friendly fire.

Donohue is a police officer with the Massachusetts Bay Tranportation Authority. His wife, Kim, is from Exeter and graduated from Exeter High School in 2000. The couple have a 7-month-old son. 

"Right now Dic is making amazing strides," Kim wrote in a post on a Facebook page that Donohue's family is using to give updates on his recovery. She continued, saying, "I was able to watch my husband take some steps today with a walker across the ICU. If there was a better word for amazing I would use it."

Doctors at Mount Auburn Hospital said Donohue lost a massive amount of blood. At one point, he went into cardiac arrest, according to Dr. Russell Nauta. Nauta said he expects Donohue Jr. to walk again.

A pair of Watertown firefighters helped save Donohue's life after being critically wounded.

The MBTA Transit Police Benevolent Fund Inc. set up a website to receive donations for Donohue's recovery. Donohue has worked for the transit police for three years.

On Saturday, the Winchester High School boys' volleyball team held a car wash fundraiser at the school in support of the wounded officer. 

Donohue, a 1998 Winchester High School graduate, graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 2002. As of 1 a.m. Tuesday, more than 750 people had donated a total of over $64,000 to benefit Donohue, according to a fundraising website set up by his VMI classmates.

Prior to joining the MBTA police force, he served as an officer for the U.S. Navy. 

The bombing suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are accused of killing three people and injuring more than 200 by detonating bombs near the finish line of the marathon. Tamerlan died during the confrontation with police, while Dzhokhar was captured Friday night in Watertown and will be tried in federal court. The brothers allegedly killed MIT Officer Sean Collier prior to the Watertown shoot-out with Donohue and other officers.