Boston Marathon Bombings: One Month Later
It’s been exactly one month since two bombs exploded on Boylston Street as runners crossed the Boston Marathon finish line and bystanders ran for their lives.
People were frantic when the blasts went off seconds apart. Business was shutdown as FBI cordoned off the typically bustling Boylston Street area for 10 days. The heart of Boston became a blood spattered crime scene, and the nation focused its attention on the site of what the UK Mirror called the second worst act of terror on U.S. soil since 9/11.
Much information on the suspects – two ethnic Chechen brothers living in Cambridge who were radicalized to become demonstratively anti-Western culture – has come out in the past 30 days as the victims convalesced and the deceased were mourned.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the elder of the brothers and the alleged mastermind of the bombings, was killed in an unprecedented gunfight in Watertown during the early-morning hours April 19. The town and much of the region was on state mandated lockdown until late that evening.
A Watertown police officer gave a detailed account of the peaceful Armenian-populated suburb-turned-warzone on WBUR.com today.
Now, in death, Tamerlan Tsarnaev has become connected to a mysterious Waltham triple murder from 2011.
Authorities and Tsarnaev’s family struggled to find a place to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev in early May. His body was eventually buried in a Virginia cemetery May 9, according to CBS and other media outlets.
About 15 hours after Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed, younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, was found in a Watertown resident’s boat parked in a backyard. He was badly injured and immediately brought into police custody. He was initially unable to speak due to his injuries.
Dzhokhar faces the death penalty. He has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property. He’s being held at Fort Devens, a federal medical center in Ayer, Mass., in a small cell with a steel door, according to the Huffington Post.
The Marathon Monday bombs killed three people and injured 260 others. MIT Police Officer Sean Collier was ambushed and allegedly killed by the brothers April 18, the night they sought to flee the area to New York, where authorities believed another attack was planned.
While the details were grisly on one side of this historic story, on the other, there were tales of triumph. Carlos Arredondo, a native of the parkway neighborhoods of Boston, was at the scene of the bombs helping people to safety. He’s been hailed a hero nationally ever since.
Jeff Bauman lost both legs in the blasts, but he’s served as a point of pride for an already proud city as he recovers and adjusts to life. He was instrumental in helping authorities identify and track down the victims, according to Bloomberg.com
Transit Police Officer Richard “Dic” Donohue was hit during the Watertown shootout, but he’s relayed many hopeful messages to the public about his ongoing recovery.
The phrase “Boston Strong” emerged complete with hashtag accompaniment. Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick established The One Fund in support of the victims. Just this week the fund eclipsed $ 30 million.
President Barack Obama joined city leaders at an interfaith ceremony April 18 at a South End church, in an effort to provide perspective and collectively pray for the dead and wounded.
As investigators continue to peel away the layers of mounting evidence against the Tsarnaevs – and their cohorts: three of Dzhokhar’s University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth friends face federal charges after they allegedly helped to destroy evidence, and Tamerlan’s widow has agreed to help the prosecution – citizens of Boston try to move on, though many still deal with paranoia after the attacks.
Several runners were unable to complete the 117th Boston Marathon due to the bombs, but that hasn’t deterred others from running the 118th in 2014.