BOSTON -- The Boston Police Department is getting rid of the kind of gun that killed an Emerson College student a few years ago during rioting by Red Sox fans.

NewsCenter 5's Steve Lacey reported that Boston's top cop said pepper pellet guns would no longer be used by his department. Commissioner Edward Davis said that the guns will be melted down and recycled into sewer caps.

"In light of what happened here in the city and the power of these guns, they have been advertised as non-lethal, but that was not the case here," Davis said.

Victoria Snelgrove was killed in October 2004 when she was struck in the left eye with a pellet fired from an officer's gun. The guns were used to quell rioting crowds outside Fenway Park in the aftermath of the Red Sox 2004 victory ALCS victory over the New York Yankees.

"It's appropriate not to use them here," Davis said. "We have well-trained officers. We have pepper spray. We have other crowd dispersion devices."

The 13 pellet guns purchased by the city were taken out of use by former Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole.

"I am not excusing anything the officers did that night because there were some serious mistakes made, but they believed that they had a device in their hands that was similar to a paintball gun. They had no clue that that device could cause the devastation that it did," O'Toole said in 2005.