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Police group wants Boston bombings photos for manhunt calendar

Posted at 12:00 AM, Sep 14, 2013
and last updated 2013-09-14 00:00:44-04

(CNN) — April 19 was perhaps the most harrowing day in the history of Watertown, Massachusetts — the suburb where the manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to separate, bloodied conclusions.

The numerous law enforcement agencies involved in the pursuit of the Tsarnaevs tracked the brothers to a residential Watertown neighborhood in the early-morning hours. The ensuing shootout ended with older brother, Tamerlan, dead, transit officer Richard Donohue seriously wounded and another 15 police officers injured.

A wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev surrendered later that evening from a boat parked in a Watertown yard.

Countless news cameras and smartphones captured images of the fear, valor and elation experienced in Watertown on that Friday; and now officials are looking for the best of those images for a 2014 calendar.

“While we will never be able to put into words our gratitude for what our police did, we can try to let the photos from that night in April speak for themselves,” Watertown Police Foundation board member Steve Messina said in a statement. “This calendar is meant to capture the best of those `snapshots’ all in one place while also continuing to raise funds for the work that our police do.”

The foundation’s website invites Watertown residents to submit photos of the “dramatic confrontation with the Marathon bombing suspects, pursuit and arrest.”

Leaked photos of the younger Tsarnaev’s capture landed a Massachusetts State Police photographer in hot water back in July.

Sgt. Sean Murphy provided Boston magazine with the unauthorized photos after Rolling Stone magazine put Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover.

Murphy called the cover “an insult” because, in his view, it didn’t portray Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the right way. He was briefly suspended and has since been reassigned. His actions are being investigated.

The foundation website also suggests photos of “the cheering afterwards, the tributes, parades, prayers, hugs and celebrations since. Interesting photos, compelling photos, preferably positive photos of the pride we all have in our Watertown Police and our town.”

Proceeds from the $13 calendar will go toward “worthwhile projects that support the work of the Watertown Police,” according to a press release.

The deadline for photo submissions is September 30.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to killing four people and wounding more than 200. He is charged with 30 federal counts stemming from the April 15 attack, when a pair of bombs went off near the finish line of the packed course. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was killed three days later at the start of the dramatic chase that led to Tsarnaev’s capture.