Discussion: Boston Marathon explosions

Horrible news: http://deadspin.com/explosions-reported-at-the-bos...

On TV now, sad and depressing"....
Two explosions, incredibly fast medical response because of huge amount of medical personnel at the finish line and in the main medical tent.
Race stopped immediately, runners re routed.
Explosion at Marathon Sports store on Boylston St at finish line.
Another two blocks back on the course.
Runners I think, spared, but spectators hit by glass.
Many bad injuries.

Are there any more details yet? Horrible.

This is on twitter:

If you know someone in Boston: don't call their cell; leave open for emergencies. Send text messages. If you know they're ok, connect later.

TV reports two killed?

NY Post reports 12. I dont think we'll know anything for sure for at least a few hours
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/two_explosio...

This seems like a useful site to know about: http://redcross.org/safeandwell

Anna Shafer-Skelton just texted to say she's ok - she'd been working near the finish.

2 dead, 23 injured is current CBS report.

it`s a sad world.

Mass Gen spokesman stated that 19 people had been brought there - 6 very critical, 5 more serious. Types of injuries include traumatic amputations.

Awful stuff.

Two blasts as stated above plus two more devices "rendered harmless". Search on for others.

Google person finder: http://google.org/personfinder/2013-boston-explosi...

Cell Phone Service shut down: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/official-cellphone-...

AP reported it, but some are saying the system is just overloaded.

Anyone heard from Aims Coney?? He was running today - just checked his splits and he was at the 40 k mark at about 3:02 pm.

That was after the explosions, so hopefully he was safely stopped (along with everyone else), when they canceled the race.

Andy is on the phone with Aims now. Now Andy typing.....

Aims is okay and Terry is okay too. Terry was at the finish and in the vicinity of the blast (has ringing in her ears) and was very close to people who were injured but is OK apart from emotional trauma. Aims did not actually cross the finish line as it happened minutes before he would have been there - he reckons he would have been about 4:20 or so and feels no need to do another marathon ever again

Thanks for the update, K & A!

Glad to hear everyone is ok.

I was there yesterday - finished about an hour before the blasts, but was working my way out of the finish and towards my ride (a few blocks away) at the time. Even being in the area - noticing some frantic folks in our midst and then hearing sirens as police, fire, swat, and other emergency vehicles swarmed to the finish area...it was frightening because you knew something really bad was happening. I can only imagine folks who were closer or more directly impacted by this. It will cloud my memories of what should have been an amazing experience.

Allheck has broken loose.One suspect shot dead by police,other on-the loose.
Hill returned home when she could not get to the boathouse in Cambridge.
Total shut down in Watertown and surrounding towns including the city ofBoston, as the second suspect is hunted.
Must wonder at the idiocy of these guys,they were caught on a camera robbing a convenience store in Cambridge last night.

Given the origin, I would specifically stay out of the woods until it's over.

Turns out the convenience store thing was unrelated. Different guys.

I think the woods are safe. Happy Billygoat everyone!

#2 is now in custody! Head for the woods - or the waterhole!

For a time, Amtrak trains were going no further north than Penn Station, NY.

Just how big an area was in lockdown up there?

Amtrak NEVER lets a good crisis go to waste.

Lockdown was about 80 sq. miles. Possibly not so much for protecting the public across the entire area, as to facilitate the job of law enforcers.

The big break in the case seems to have occurred when they lifted the lockdown so that people could check out the boats in their backyards. Crowdsourcing in action.

So many shots, so few hits. Did the police really want to take out the guy or just scare the shit out of him and take him alive?

Was Logan shut down?

Were all entry (& exit) points on roads blocked?

I think the police always prefer to take a suspect alive if possible.

Unless you're the LAPD and the suspect used to be one of you.

For the benefit of those on this side of the world, can anyone explain the following? Our tv stations showed video of a suspect (presumably Tamerlan) stripped and being put in a police car at the scene of the first shootout. He looked pretty healthy. Next thing we are told Tamerlan died within 15 minutes of arriving at hospital from gunshot, explosive wounds and being run over by his escaping brother!

I think there was another person arrested at the first shootout---not sure---I was sleeping at the time: https://twitter.com/sethmnookin/status/32512288994...

Logan was not closed, but when crawfordsl arrived there, she was stuck for a short time until the ban was lifted and she was able to travel to her brother's home in Medford.

Tamerlan was never in a police car. He left the scene in an ambulance.

I live about two miles northeast of where the major happenings were in Watertown. I heard four distant thumps late Thursday night, found an online police scanner, and listened through the wee hours. I called it a night when they said they had 'both' suspects. At the time it wasn't said that they were the marathon bombing suspects, but it wasn't hard to assume that. One, the older brother, was in an ambulance and one was unfortunately nicknamed Naked Man. I believe Naked Man was an unlucky passer-by, forced to strip to remove the possibility of a suicide vest - allegedly the older brother had just run at the police with a vest.

I dropped a coworker off at Logan around 3pm Friday and there was a checkpoint, but flights were leaving. We weren't stopped, but I've got a hatchback without an enclosed trunk. Taxis and cars with trunks were stopped and asked to open them. My fiancee drove to her parent's place via the major northeast expressway around 10am and didn't encounter any checkpoint. Listening to the scanner, it was explicitly clear that the area of attention was about square of Watertown about 1000ft on the side. The second brother was found very near the south edge of that area shortly after calling off the search.

I recently learned that the pair were first discovered after some other person/persons knocked over a nearby convenience store - and officers reviewing the footage saw the younger brother coincidentally at the same store.

The news coverage has been tremendously irritating, but in the aftermath the Washington Post has put up a few good articles.

On 60 Minutes, the Boston PD Chief said that an officer tackled Tamerlan during the firefight when he ran out of ammo. There was no suicide vest.

I still don't understand why they killed that poor, young MIT cop; it did not sound like he engaged them.

I'm still waiting to hear the evidence that they were involved with the murder of the policeman. I'm not saying that they weren't, but the evidence linking them to it doesn't seem to have showed up in the media yet. It may yet turn out that they were not (as they apparently did not rob the 7-11), or when the details come out, it may become more clear what happened and what their motivation was. (And please don't misinterpret this as my implying that they had any justification. I'm just wondering if they were, e.g. trying to carjack the police car or something.)

Overall, I think there's a lot we don't know yet.