Boston Explosions: The Latest News


We’ll be trying to keep up with the latest headlines from Boston throughout the day today, obviously. Going forward, the latest news will be at the top of this story, with older headlines being pushed down the document as the day lengthens.

[Updated: 3:40 p.m.] The Inquirer reports that Jeff Bauman—the young man seen in a famously horrific picture being wheeled away from the attack site, his lower legs both apparently blown away—is a Flyers fan with “deep roots” in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

“We’re all just gathering around him, loving him, telling him we’re here for him,” Bauman’s step-mother, Csilla Bauman, said in a phone interview.

She and Bauman’s father, Jeffrey, grew up in Oaklyn, N.J., met and married others and, after becoming divorced, connected and married.

For a time they resided in the Philadelphia neighborhood of East Falls, where Jeff, who lived with his mother in New England, would visit as a kindergarten and first-grade student. The couple moved to New England to be closer to him, and now reside in New Hampshire.

[Updated: 2:25 p.m.] Yahoo News reports a second fatality of the Boston Marathon bombing has been identified. Krystle Campbell, 29, of Medford, Mass., was at the finish line to the race, cheering on her boyfriend, when the bombs went off on Monday.

Her father, William A. Campbell Jr., told Yahoo News he’s in shock that his daughter was killed.

“My daughter was the most lovable girl. She helped everybody, and I’m just so shocked right now. We’re just devastated,” he said. “She was a wonderful, wonderful girl. Always willing to lend a hand.”

She joins 8-year-old Martin Richard as the two publicly identified victims of the attack. A third person who died still has not been identified.

[Updated: 12:30 p.m.] AP reports the Boston bombs were homemade devices placed inside 6-liter pressure cookers and hidden inside black duffel bags:

The (story’s anonymous source) says the explosives were placed on the ground and contained shards of metal, nails and ball bearings. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

The person says law enforcement officials have some of the bomb components but did not yet know what was used to set off the explosives.

[Updated: 11: 45 a.m.] Politico reports on President Obama’s statement just now, definitively calling the bombings “an act of terror”:

“This was a heinous and cowardly act and given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism. Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror,” Obama said at the White House. “What we don’t yet know however is who carried out this attack or why, whether it was planned by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or whether it was the act of a malevolent individual.”

Obama said he had just been briefed by his national security team, but information about those responsible and any motives was still coming in. He promised continued briefings on the situation throughout the day.

“We will find whoever harmed our citizens and bring them to justice,” Obama said. “We also know this: the American people will not be terrorized.”

The president has ordered flags be flown at half-mast.

[Updated: 10 a.m.] So, who is the mysterious man on the roof of a Boston building, seen in pictures from the attack scene on Monday? I’m inclined to think we’ve already started down the road toward grassy knoll conspiracy-mongering here, but the unidentified man has attracted a lot of attention from online sleuths.

The New York Daily News reports:

The picture, taken by spectator Dan Lampariello, shows what appears to be a man walking on the roof of a building near the site of the second bomb, Yahoo News reported. The two bombs were detonated about 12 seconds apart at 2:50 p.m. near the race’s finish line.

The identity of the shadowy figure is not known, nor is it clear if he had anything to do with the terror attack. But the image has some people spooked.

But as Yahoo News reports, it’s easy to conjure an explanation:

It’s worth noting that Boston police had been cracking down on rooftop parties along the marathon route.

In 2011, a 22-year-old college student fell through a skylight while watching the Boston Marathon from the top of a Brookline apartment.

In other words: The investigation has a long ways to go yet, folks. Don’t try to outrace investigators, because you’re not goingto figure out the culprit before they do. This isn’t a TV show.

In other news, the London Marathon plans to proceed with its own race planned for Sunday:

Determined to put on a show of “solidarity” for Boston, London Marathon organizers will stage their race on Sunday despite the threat of terrorism.

The British capital has long been a top target for terrorists, and concerns have only intensified ahead of Sunday’s race after Monday’s harrowing scenes at the Boston Marathon, where bombs killed three people and injured many more.

However, British sports minister Hugh Robertson said the London Marathon, watched by an estimated 500,000 spectators and run through some of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, should be staged as planned to show “we won’t be cowered by this sort of behavior.”

 

[Updated: 9 a.m.] The New York Daily News reports on the investigation:

Police hauled several large bags from a suburban Boston apartment in connection with the deadly twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 140 at Monday’s Boston Marathon.

The bags were carried out around 2 a.m. Tuesday from an apparently vacant apartment in Revere, about 5 miles north of Boston.

No one had been arrested as of early Tuesday morning.

The IRS is giving Boston taxpayers a break:

Our hearts go out to those affected by the terrible tragedy. Boston-area taxpayers need time to finish their tax returns without worry. The IRS will be providing individual tax filing and payment extensions. Details will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday, April 16.

The Pakistani Taliban are denying a role in the attack: (Which makes sense: With the U.S. preparing to draw down forces in Afghanistan next year, they’re not likely to take action that provokes the U.S. to a longer armed commitment in the region.)

The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed the 2010 Times Square bomb plot, on Tuesday denied anything to do with explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 100 in Boston, AFP reports.

“We believe in attacking US and its allies but we are not involved in this attack,” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP.

“We have no connection to this bombing but we will continue to target them wherever possible,” Ehsan added.

[8 a.m.] Here’s what we know at the start of Day Two:

[New York Times] The toll so far is three dead, more than 100 injured:

BOSTON — Two powerful bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon, killing three people, including an 8-year-old child, and injuring more than 100, as one of this city’s most cherished rites of spring was transformed from a scene of cheers and sweaty triumph to one of screams and carnage.

Almost three-quarters of the 23,000 runners who participated in the race had already crossed the finish line when a bomb that had apparently been placed in a garbage can exploded around 2:50 p.m. in a haze of smoke amid a crowd of spectators on Boylston Street, just off Copley Square in the heart of the city. Thirteen seconds later, another bomb exploded several hundred feet away.

[Boston Globe] An 8-year-old boy is among the dead:

The grief resonated sharply in Dorchester, where residents gathered Monday night at Tavolo Restaurant in memory of 8-year-old Martin Richard, who was killed in the attack, and his mother and sister, who suffered grievous injuries. Martin’s father, Bill, is a community leader in the Ashmont section of Dorchester. A third child was reportedly uninjured.

“They are beloved by this community,” said City Councilor at Large Ayanna Pressley, who was among the mourners. “They contribute in many ways. That’s why you see this outpouring. It’s surreal, it’s tragic’’

[Boston Globe] Among the survivors, two brothers who each lost a leg:

Liz Norden, a mother of five, had just finished hauling groceries into her Wakefield home Monday afternoon when her cellphone rang.

“Ma, I’m hurt real bad,” said her 31-year-old son. He was in an ambulance, he told her, being rushed to Beth ­Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

It was her second boy, who had gone with his older brother to watch a friend run in the Boston Marathon.

On the phone, her son said his legs were badly burned in an explosion. His brother had been next to him, but he didn’t know where he was.

Within the next two hours, amid frantic phone calls and a panicked drive into Boston, Norden pieced together the horrific truth that will forever change her two sons’ lives — and her own. Each of the brothers lost a leg, from the knee down. One was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess, while the other was at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

[Boston Globe] Everybody is a suspect, home-grown and foreign:

Radical Muslims “will be every­one’s favorite suspect, but there are many other possibilities,” said Brian Michael ­Jenkins, a terrorism specialist at the Rand Corp.

A State Police report in 2003 warned that the Marathon could be a “possible prime terrorist target” because it ­involves such a large number of runners and spectators, draws a live worldwide television audience, coincides with the Patriots Day holiday in ­Boston, and is shortly before the anniversaries of two other terrorist attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19 and the Columbine High School shooting on April 20.

“Terrorists around the world have traditionally sought large, symbolic, high visibility targets to attack,” the report said.

Mother Jones reports on one of the heroes, “the man in the cowboy hat” who was photographed helping a young man who’d lost both legs:

One of the responders in the photograph—the man in the cowboy hat—has been identified as Carlos Arredondo, a Costa Rican immigrant whose Marine son died in action in Iraq in 2004. The day he learned of his son’s death, Arredondo ​locked himself in a van with five gallons of gasoline and a propane torch and set the van on fire. He survived, became a peace activist, and was among the spectators who rushed toward the fumes after the explosion today. After tying a tourniquet onto the young man’s legs and wheeling him past the finish line to emergency help, Arredondo, seen badly shaken and trembling in this video, gripping a small American flag drenched in blood, talks to some bystanders on the street about the explosion:

[Daily Mail] Runner shown being knocked down by first blast uninjured, finished second in age division:

Television viewers feared the worst when they saw footage of Bill Iffrig, 78, of Lake Stevens, Washington, crumple to the ground with the force of the first explosion in the Boston Marathon.

But as runners scattered and emergency workers ran in to help, Mr Iffrig, a retired mason, staggered to his feet and managed to cross the finishing line.

He told ESPN2 he was heading for the finish line and ‘feeling pretty good’ when he heard a terrible explosion.

‘The shockwaves must have hit my body and my legs just started going like noodles and I knew I was going down right there.’

[The Telegraph] In the face of evil, plenty of heroes to be found:

So many of the runners continued to run across the finishing line and onwards to the Massachusetts General Hospital, in a rush to give blood, that they had to be turned away.

Luke Russert reported on Twitter that he watched as a white-shirted volunteer in his red official baseball cap wheeled a woman out of the danger zone before rushing immediately back to the scene.

A retired American Football star, Joe Andruzzi, who won the Superbowl three times with the New England Patriots, carried victims away from the carnage (above). All three of his brothers were firemen in New York who responded to the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers.

Other people opened their homes to those who were stranded, or offered lifts to people without transport. A Google document was set up with offers of help, such as: “Located across the street from Mass General Hospital. I have a couch and an inflatable twin mattress for anyone who needs to stay.”

Such news helped this Patton Oswalt note go viral:

I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak.