The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has officially identified the police officer killed in the line of duty on Thursday evening as Patrol Officer Sean A. Collier, 26, of Somerville, Mass.

Steve Bradt of the MIT News Office offers the following details:

Collier had served as a member of the MIT Police since Jan. 9, 2012, following service as a civilian employee with the Somerville Police Department. He was single and a native of Wilmington, Mass.

“Sean was one of these guys who really looked at police work as a calling,” said MIT Police Chief John DiFava. “He was born to be a police officer.”

Collier was shot Thursday evening following an altercation at the corner of Vassar Street and Main Street in Cambridge, roughly between Building 32 (Stata Center) and Building 76 (David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research) on the MIT campus. He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The MIT Police, Cambridge Police Department and Massachusetts State Police are continuing their investigation of the circumstances surrounding Collier’s death.

“The loss of Officer Collier is deeply painful to the entire MIT community,” MIT President L. Rafael Reif said. “Our thoughts today are with his family, his friends, his colleagues on our police force and, by all accounts, the many other members of our community who knew him. This is a senseless and tragic loss.”

“The MIT Police serve all of us at the Institute with great dignity, honor and dedication,” said Israel Ruiz, MIT’s executive vice president and treasure. “Everyone here — those who knew Officer Collier, and those who did not — are devastated by the events that transpired on our campus last night. We will never forget the seriousness with which he took his role protecting MIT and those of us who consider it home.”

‘He loved us, and we loved him’

DiFava said Collier was highly involved with MIT’s student population. “In a very short period of time, it was remarkable how engaged he was with students,” DiFava said.

“He wanted to get to know students — he wanted to understand us,” senior Michele Pratusevich said. “And he did it; he knew which students he was protecting every day when he came to work. By getting to know students, by talking to us, by sharing memories with us, by hiking with us, by dancing with us, by listening to music with us, he knew his community. He loved us, and we loved him.”

Maddie Hickman ’11 recalled Collier’s frequent stops by MIT’s student center while on his shift — and his dancing of the Lindy Hop.