Officials Thank Two Medfield Police Officers for Response to Boston Marathon Bombings

The Board of Selectmen started their meeting this week with a word of thanks to two Medfield police officers who helped with aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15. 

Chairman of the Board of Selectmen Mark Fisher said that, within 20 minutes of the Boston Marathon bombings, MPD officers Jim O’Neil and Eric Pellegrini were on their way into Boston.

The men are part of the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council which is made up of a group of 42 law enforcement agencies in the Metro-West area.

"We do really appreciate all the effort they put in in that crisis and they were able to apprehend the two suspects," Fisher said, noting the men were working 12-18 hour days during the crisis.

Fisher also thanked the remaining Medfield officers who stepped up and filled in for them on their regular shifts in Medfield for the week. 

"Jim and Eric really don't want any special recognition but I thought it was very special for us to know as a town," Fisher said. 

After the meeting, Medfield Police Chief Robert Meaney Jr. confirmed to Patch that the men did not want to be singled out for their efforts.

"I do have some idea of what their assignments were and some of it was very boring and other times it was very dangerous," Meaney said. "I can tell you that Medfield was represented by two dedicated and capable officers who are deserving of our praise and our thanks and very clearly made us proud." 

Meaney said it is an advantage for the town to have these MPD officers on the Metro LEC. 

"The main benefit to Medfield, however, is I can have a large number of highly-trained officers with their equipment in Medfield in a very short period of time when an incident occurs that is beyond our capabilities," Meaney said.  

Metro LEC officers have skills in investigations, hostage negotiations, child abductions, crisis de-escalation, SWAT, mobile operations (motorcycles), K-9 unit, computer crimes and a search and rescue team. The group also has various types of vehicles available for use to include a mobile command center which is often used by the City of Boston for various events.