Deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon this week rattled a city and left its people shaken but not broken as the first major act of domestic terrorism since 9/11 arrived on the streets of Boston.
The citizens of Greater Boston headed into the weekend on edge, newly released from an order to remain in their homes after learning the meaning Friday of “shelter in place.” One bombing suspect was killed overnight Thursday and another – 19-year-old Dzhokar Tsarnaev – was at large and described as very dangerous after a 200-round shootout and explosive confrontation with police in Watertown.
But moments after the stay-home order was lifted, the cops cornered Tsarnaev, who slipped away on foot Thursday, cornering him in a boat in a Watertown backyard. After a tense standoff over several hours, Tsarnaev reported climbed out of the boat, bloodied, and surrendered. Onlookers cheered, law enforcement celebrated, and a city breathed.
“We got him,” Tweeted Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
For every tragic story, including the murders of three marathon spectators and MIT police officer Sean Collier, 26, public officials and residents also celebrated the acts of heroism of those who rushed into the smoke on Boylston Street to save lives.
Jeff Bauman, a Chelmsford resident who lost both his legs in the blasts, woke up in his hospital bed asking for pen and paper. “bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,” he wrote, according to The Sun of Lowell, perhaps providing a crucial tip for law enforcement scouring video to identify the bombers.
Literally unique to Boston and Massachusetts, Patriots Day is more than just a celebration of the revolutionary battles of Concord and Lexington. It is the marathon and morning baseball, a rite of spring and all the joys that come with it.
But not long after the Red Sox celebrated a walk-off win, the elite runners had finished the Boston Marathon and more amateur runners trotted toward the finish line celebrating the completion of their 26.2 mile endurance test, disaster exploded on the streets of Boston.
Near simultaneous explosions on Boylston Street rocked the finish line area, killing three and injuring over 170 more. Some spectators suffered severed limbs, while others were pelted with shrapnel from the pressure cooker bombs loaded with ball bearings and other tokens of carnage.
Martin Richard, 8, of Dorchester; Krystle Campbell, 29, of Arlington, and Lu Lingzi, a Boston University student from China were killed.
President Barack Obama visited the city Thursday with a message of solidarity to comfort the region. “We may be momentarily knocked down, but we’ll pick ourselves up, we will keep going. We will finish the race,” the president said, drawing a standing ovation at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston’s South End.
And like Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick before him, Obama promised that next year’s marathon will be bigger and the city prouder of it than ever before. “This time next year, on the third Monday in April, the world will return to this great American city to run harder than ever and to cheer even louder for that 118th Boston Marathon. Bet on it,” Obama said.
Before knowing who they were, Obama called the perpetrators of the bombings “small stunted individuals.”
A public desperate for information on who carried out the attack and why were left disappointed and confused Wednesday when the media did not shower itself in glory, running full steam ahead with erroneous reports that a suspect had been identified and arrested.
False bomb threats at the federal courthouse and the State House, and on-again, off-again press conferences ensued.
But after more than 24 hours without an official update, the F.B.I. on Thursday night announced a break in the case. The feds had identified two suspects caught on surveillance tape on Boylston Street at the time of Monday’s attack, including video not shared with the public of Suspect 2, or “white hat” dropping a backpack at the site of the second explosion in front of the Forum restaurant.
With law enforcement’s appeal to the public for help identifying and finding the suspects, there was a sense that significant progress had been made.
The subsequent events were stunning.
Many went to sleep Thursday night knowing only that another tragedy was unfolding across the river in Cambridge where an MIT police officer had been shot and killed. They awoke to one the largest manhunts in history, images displayed on TV of a terrifying police shootout with the suspects, news that a transit cop Richard Donohue, 33, had been shot and was in critical condition at Mt. Auburn Hospital, and the names of the suspects – Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev – plastered throughout the media.
Details of the two brothers from near the Chechnya region of Russia trickled out. Tamerlan, 26, was married and newer to the United States than his younger brother, a graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin and a student at UMass Dartmouth. Tamerlan died during the confrontation with police, while Dzhokar vanished, with police later saying they didn’t have enough people to establish a perimeter and address first aid needs on scene.
The city and surrounding communities from Watertown and Waltham to Boston and Newton spent Friday on high alert and praying for a conclusion to a surreal week of tragedy.
Needless to say, politics and legislating took a backseat this week. The five candidates for U.S. Senate suspended their campaigns Monday, after the bombings. Rep. Daniel Winslow announced he would try to ease back onto the trail Thursday afternoon after the healing service, but that plan was washed by the developments Friday.
For Democrat Stephen Lynch, there had to be a sense of déjà vu. The last time he ran in a special election he was elected to Congress on Sept. 11, 2001.
U.S. Rep. Lynch, one of two Democrats seeking to replace John Kerry in the Senate, appeared frequently on television standing in the background of the FBI briefings at the Westin Copley throughout the week. His remarks, however, were confined to ones of sympathy for the victims, particularly the family of 8-year-old Martin Richard.
Lynch knew the Richard family from Dorchester and met extensively with them at the hospital as they grieved the loss of their middle son and prayed for the recovery of their youngest daughter. The father, Bill, and mother in the family were also injured in the second blast on Boylston Street.
With the city and the media focus elsewhere, House budget writers quietly tried to prepare for next week’s debate on the Ways and Means Committee’s $33.8 billion spending plan for fiscal 2014, still on track to begin Monday. There were 888 amendments filed.
The Gaming Commission also made a critical decision to open the southeast region to commercial casino license applicants, a much scrutinized issue with implications for the Mashpee Wampanoag’s pursuit of a Taunton casino that could have ramifications for the broader development of gaming in Massachusetts.
The acquittal of former Probation Department head John O’Brien also slipped by relatively unnoticed, another blow to Attorney General Martha Coakley and her stepped up efforts to prosecute public corruption armed with new laws.
Coakley tried O’Brien for allegedly organizing a fundraiser for former Treasurer Tim Cahill in order to win his wife a job in the Treasury. But as in the case of Cahill, who was found not guilty of illegally using public Lottery resources to bolster his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, a jury found O’Brien not guilty.