|
BOSTON -- The bombs that ripped through the crowd at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 170, were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with metal shards, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage, a person briefed on the investigation said Tuesday.
The details on the apparently crude but deadly explosives emerged as investigators appealed to the public for amateur video and photos that might yield clues to who carried out the attack. The chief FBI agent in Boston vowed "we will go to the ends of the Earth" to find those responsible.
A person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on said the explosives were put in 6-liter kitchen pressure cookers, hidden in black duffel bags and left on the ground. They were packed with shrapnel, the person said.
The person said law enforcement officials have some of the bomb components but do not yet know what was used to set off the explosives.
Earlier, a doctor treating the wounded appeared to corroborate the person's account, saying one of the victims was maimed by what looked like ball bearings or BBs.
"We've removed BBs and we've removed nails from kids. One of the sickest things for me was just to see nails sticking out of a little girl's body," said Dr. David Mooney, director of the trauma center at Boston Children's Hospital.
Two children remain in critical condition at the hospital with serious leg injuries. Mooney said that tourniquets applied by emergency responders at the race saved the children's lives.
Eight-year-old Martin Richard was among the dead, said U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, a family friend. The boy's mother, Denise, and 6-year-old sister, Jane, were badly injured. His brother and father, Bill, were also watching the race but were not hurt.
"My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston. My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries. We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers," Bill Richard said in a statement released Tuesday. "I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin. We also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to simultaneously grieve and recover. Thank you."
Also among the dead is 29-year-old restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, of Medford, Mass. Her father, William Campell, said Tuesday Krystle had gone with her best friend to take a picture of the friend's boyfriend crossing the finish line on Monday afternoon.
His daughter, who worked at a restaurant in nearby Arlington, was "very caring, very loving person, and was daddy's little girl," William Campbell said. He said the loss has devastated the family.
At the White House, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said that the bombings were an act of terrorism but that investigators do not know if they were carried out by an international organization, domestic group or a "malevolent individual."
He added: "The American people refuse to be terrorized."
Across the U.S., from Washington to Los Angeles, police tightened security, monitoring landmarks, government buildings, transit hubs and sporting events. Security was especially tight in Boston, with bomb-sniffing dogs checking Amtrak passengers' luggage at South Station and transit police patrolling with rifles.
"They can give me a cavity search right now and I'd be perfectly happy," said Daniel Wood, a video producer from New York City who was waiting for a train.
Similar pressure-cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 intelligence report by the FBI and Homeland Security. Also, one of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, the report said.
"Placed carefully, such devices provide little or no indication of an impending attack," the report said.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the 2010 attempt in Times Square, has denied any role in the Boston Marathon attack.
The two bombs blew up about 10 seconds and around 100 yards apart Monday near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race, tearing off limbs, knocking people off their feet and leaving the streets stained with blood and strewn with broken glass. The dead included an 8-year-old boy.
"It was a war zone. Truly," runner Demi Clark, who was steps shy of the finish line when the first explosion occurred, told ESPN's Marty Smith, "It was triage immediately. I would not even know what it's like to be in Afghanistan, but this was a war zone."
Federal investigators said no one had claimed responsibility for the bombings, which took place on one of the city's biggest civic holidays, Patriots Day.
"We will go to the ends of the Earth to identify the subject or subjects who are responsible for this despicable crime, and we will do everything we can to bring them to justice," said Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston.
He said investigators had received "voluminous tips" and were interviewing witnesses and analyzing the crime scene.
Gov. Deval Patrick said that contrary to earlier reports, no unexploded bombs were found. He said the only explosives were the ones that went off.
FBI agents searched an apartment in the Boston suburb of Revere overnight, and investigators were seen leaving with brown paper bags, plastic trash bags and a duffel bag.
According to The Boston Globe, the man's roommate, Mohammed Bodawood, said Tuesday he doubts his friend played a role in the attack.
"I don't think he could do that," Bodawood told the newspaper. Bodawood described his roommate as a 20-year-old devout Muslim from Saudi Arabia and a soccer fan.
A spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington also said U.S. officials had told the embassy Monday night that the man was not a suspect and was cooperating with the investigation.
At a news conference Tuesday, police and federal agents repeatedly appealed for any video, audio and photos taken by marathon spectators, even images that people might not think are significant.
"There has to be hundreds, if not thousands, of photos and videos" that might help investigators, state police Col. Timothy Alben said.
Boston Police commissioner Edward Davis said investigators also gathered a large number of surveillance tapes from businesses in the area and intend to go through the video frame by frame.
"This is probably one of the most photographed areas in the country yesterday," he said.
The fiery explosions took place about 10 seconds and about 100 yards apart, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending columns of smoke rising over the street.
At least 17 people were critically injured, police said. At least eight children were being treated at hospitals. In addition to losing limbs, victims suffered broken bones, shrapnel wounds and ruptured eardrums.
Dr. Stephen Epstein of the emergency medicine department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said he saw an X-ray of one victim's leg that had "what appears to be small, uniform, round objects throughout it -- similar in the appearance to BBs."
At Massachusetts General Hospital, Alasdair Conn, chief of emergency services, said: "This is something I've never seen in my 25 years here ... this amount of carnage in the civilian population. This is what we expect from war."
A candle burned on the stoop of the Richard family's single-family home in the city's Dorchester section Tuesday, and the word "Peace" was written in chalk on the front walk. Neighbor Betty Delorey said Martin loved to climb the neighborhood trees, and hop the fence outside his home.
Davis, the police commissioner, said authorities had received "no specific intelligence that anything was going to happen" at the race. On Tuesday, he said that two security sweeps of the route had been conducted before the marathon.
The race winds up near Copley Square, not far from the landmark Prudential Center and the Boston Public Library. It is held on Patriots Day, which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution, at Concord and Lexington in 1775.
Richard Barrett, the former U.N. coordinator for an al-Qaida and Taliban monitoring team who has also worked for British intelligence, said the relatively small size of the devices in Boston and the timing of the blasts suggest a domestic attack rather than an al-Qaida-inspired one.
"This happened on Patriots Day -- it is also the day Americans are supposed to have their taxes in -- and Boston is quite a symbolic city," said Barrett, now senior director at the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies.
The Pakistani Taliban, which has threatened attacks in the United States because of its support for the Pakistani government, on Tuesday denied any role in the bombings.
_________________ Frank Coztansa wrote: conns7901 wrote: Not over yet. Yes it is. CDOM wrote: When this is all over, which is not going to be for a while, Trump will be re-elected President.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
