Dark Nylon Bag, Pressure Cooker May Have Been Used In Bombing
The finish line crowd included more police than any year prior on Monday when two bombs that may have included BB pellets and nails contained in a pressure cooker detonated, killing three and injuring scores more at the Boston Marathon, according to authorities.
Law enforcement officers have cordoned about a dozen blocks around Copley Square as a crime scene and are reaching out to the public for help, as state officials comfort victims of the attack with President Barack Obama scheduled to visit a South End church this Thursday.
“The investigation is in its infancy,” Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers said at a later afternoon press briefing, more than 24 hours after the blasts. “At this time there are no claims of responsibility. The range of suspects and motives remains wide open. Importantly, the person who did this is someone’s friend, neighbor, co-worker or relative.”
DesLauriers asked people and businesses to retain camera footage that might prove useful, and asked the public for information about a range of suspicious activity, including the sound of blasts in a remote area that may have been used as a test site or “someone who appeared to be carrying an unusually heavy, dark-colored bag yesterday around the time of the blasts and in the vicinity of the blasts.” He said that one or more of the bombs may have included a pressure cooker holding nails and BB pellets, and said investigators have also found pieces of dark nylon that may have held the device.
“We are doing this methodically, carefully, yet with a sense of urgency,” DesLauriers said. “All across the nation and around the world, the force of the United States is working hard to locate those responsible. Already the FBI has received more than 2,000 tips as of noon today, many of which have already been reviewed, analyzed, and vetted.”
The evidence is being sent to the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Va., and DesLauriers and other law enforcement officials declined to speculate on the type of explosive used.
Gov. Deval Patrick and Lt. Gov. Tim Murray met with victims of the attack, as did U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, who was in a wheelchair after recently breaking his leg.
“We are going to have an inter-faith service. It will be at 11 o’clock on Thursday morning. It will be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End. I’m very pleased that the president will join us for that to help us all heal,” Patrick said.
Patrick noted that the marathon had gone on for more than a century without an attack, and said that every year officials learn how to better provide safety along the route.
“There were more officers assigned to this race than we’ve ever assigned before, and we were particularly concerned with the finish line this year and assigned more officers down in that area,” said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who said every year they review the marathon’s security, and determined that there was a larger crowd last year, which called for the extra police. Davis said “tens of thousands” passed through the finish line area over the course of the day and said there were undercover officers in the crowd as well to keep watch for pickpockets.
“When you have an event like this, you can’t lock it down like it’s a military operation. It needs to be open to the public,” Davis said. He said, “It requires that we don’t turn these events into a police state.”
In the aftermath of the event a medical tent set up to treat runners was used as triage for bomb victims headed to the city’s hospitals. The tent is still standing, behind the perimeter guarded by the National Guard. Patrick asked the media for a “favor” on behalf of a young woman named Victoria he met who was wounded with shrapnel in the leg.
Victoria wants to thank the Army sergeant, an Afghanistan veteran named Tyler who helped calm her down in part by showing her his own shrapnel wound, Patrick said, asking the veteran to contact his office so Victoria can thank him personally.
Menino and others said the charitable actions taken by people showed the city’s resilience.
“We are one community, as the mayor says. We are all in this together, and the sensitivity we show to each other as we heal will be an important part of how we heal,” Patrick said.
Asked after the event about the possibility that whoever planted the bombs aimed to terrorize the city, Interim U.S. Sen. William “Mo” Cowan told reporters. “They failed.”
“Yesterday was a day of shock and horror, but today people woke up. Everyone I talked to is talking about the resilience, the need to find who did this and bring them to swift justice, to bounce back, rebuild Boston and move forward,” Cowan said. “No one’s talking about, you know, ‘Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. We’re doomed.’ People are saying, ‘Someone’s committed a horrific act. We’re going to find out who did it, in the true Boston spirit and we’re going to deal with it.’”
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