Some of the facts are becoming settled, nevertheless. The rumor that there were unexploded devices discovered later is untrue: there were only two discovered, the ones that in fact detonated. As for the Middle-Eastern nationalist who was involved, he seems to be a victim as innocent as the others, who has also fully cooperated with having his apartment searched.
The bombs in question were left in black backpacks which were meant to look like discarded personal property. One of the devices was put inside a metal pressure cooker.
Meanwhile, three are dead, the youngest and first being an 8-year-old boy named Martin Richard who was running from the first blast when the second detonated. Another victim was 29-year-old restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, and the third has not been identified. 176 other people have visited the hospital, suffering from mostly lower body injuries that included having nails and ball-bearings removed. The latter bits of metal are believed to have been deliberately included in the bomb.
Though it is too soon to understand what this terrorist attack means and why it happened – we don’t even have a suspect — the symbolic value of it already suggests itself as the race was to honor Sandy Hook victims. As the plumes of thick smoke rose amidst the street, casting a pall around the national flags near the end of the race, and as blood stained the sidewalk beneath, a sense of our global vulnerabilities could be felt.
Obama spoke at 11 a.m. this morning on the tragedy, saying:
“We know that two explosions gravely wounded dozens of Americans and took the lives of others, including an 8-year-old boy. 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. Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians; it is an act of terror. What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack or why, whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual. That’s what we don’t yet know. And clearly, we’re at the beginning of our investigation. It will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened, but we will find out. We will find whoever harmed our citizens, and we will bring them to justice.
“We also know this: The American people refuse to be terrorized, because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness and generosity and love, exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood and those who stayed to tend to the wounded, some tearing off their own clothes to make tourniquets, the first responders who ran into the chaos to save lives, the men and women who are still treating the wounded at some of the best hospitals in the world, and the medical students who hurried to help, saying, ‘When we heard, we all came in,’ the priests who opened their churches and ministered to the hurt and the fearful, and the good people of Boston who opened their homes to the victims of this attack and those shaken by it. So if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil, that’s it: selflessly, compassionately, unafraid.