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Open Thread: Boston Marathon Bombings

Posted: April 18, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Crime | Tags: , , |42 Comments
Many of the spectators at the Boston Marathon had cameras on hand

Many of the spectators at the Boston Marathon had cameras on hand

Once again, we’re hearing that the FBI will release photos of persons of interest in the Boston Marathon bombing. One image is a screen grab from a video and the other is a still photo. One image comes from the site of the first explosion and the second comes from the second bombing site.

I’m listening to WBUR right now, and the news conference is just beginning. I’ll add more to this post after I listen to the announcement. If you’re watching on TV, please chime in. I don’t want to miss anything by running in the other room to turn on the TV.

Agent Des Lauriers says these are the only images the public should trust–any others you see on-line or in newspapers are not relevant.

The images can be viewed at the FBI website, which is opening very slowly, unsurprisingly.

Here are two relevant links that I found before the press conference began.

The Boston Globe: Feds using photo analysis in Boston case

USA Today: Investigators to release images of two men near Marathon bomb sites

Here’s the video released by the FBI:

Screen grabs from the FBI website:

array500 (2)

FBI Press Conference Video:

From the FBI Website:

To Provide Tips in the Investigation

If you have visual images, video, and/or details regarding the explosions along the Boston Marathon route and elsewhere, submit them on https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov/. No piece of information or detail is too small.

You can also call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), prompt #3, with information.
All media inquiries should be directed to the FBI’s National Press Office at (202) 324-3691.

– Boston FBI
– Boston Police Department


Some information on the victims of the bombings:

The Boston Globe: A list of known victims so far.

Time: The Boston Bombings: Peculiar Benefits of the 9/11 Wars

Within hours of the Boston Marathon bombing Monday, the Navy dispatched a three-member team from Newport, R.I., to try to help to track down the perpetrators. As word spread of multiple amputations among the victims, military doctors agreed that their skills at outfitting troops with prosthetics could help those maimed in Boston.

But beyond that obvious help, the military has learned lessons since 9/11 that are all too applicable in the wake of the Boston bombings.

“Because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are many people in the country that are skilled in treating traumatic injuries like amputations and traumatic brain injuries,” Alex Horton, an Iraq-war veteran who now blogs for the VA, noted Tuesday. “Physicians have a larger breadth of knowledge about these injuries than a dozen years ago, and lessons learned from the wars undoubtedly saved many lives in operating rooms in and around Boston.”

In a post on the VA’s Vantage Point blog, Horton noted that many of those first on the scene to tend to the casualties had learned their skills in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Boston Globe: 5-year-old boy among Marathon bombing victims who are ‘getting better’ at Boston Medical Center

A 5-year-old boy grievously injured in Monday’s Marathon bombings is getting better, according to Boston Medical Center Chief of Trauma Services Peter Burke, and is no longer listed in critical condition….

The boy suffered soft tissue injuries to his extremities and “significant pulmonary injuries,” Burke said. The pulmonary injuries, he said, were likely caused either by compression from the blast or from being thrown into something. His mother was injured and is at a different hospital.

Burke discussed the similarities between the injuries in Boston and those encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sixteen patients remain in the hospital, Burke said: one 60-year-old man is still in critical condition, 10 patients are in serious condition and five are in fair condition; doctors expect to reoperate on two patients today. In the past 48 hours, he said, three patients have been discharged.

Doctors at BMC have amputated seven limbs on five patients, he said….

Several patients still require more surgeries, Burke said.

“These injuries are massive and require multiple trips to the operating room sometimes,” said Burke.

If doctors close wounds in one single operation, he said, they risk infection. Instead, wounds must be cleaned several times. Doctors have removed metal and concrete from patients, he said, and infection is one of the biggest concerns.

Patients are also suffering emotional repercussions, including flashbacks of the bombings.

An update: 5-year-old Boston bomb victim no longer critical

Burke says the boy, whose name has not been released, had significant soft tissue injuries and pulmonary injuries. He says a blast can often compress a child’s chest, bruising the lungs and heart. Burke says he’s pleased with the boy’s progress.

ABC News: Boston Marathon Bomber Wanted to Kill ‘as Many People as Possible’

The bombmakers behind the Boston Marathon explosions weren’t looking to scare people, a trauma surgeon with nine years of military experience told ABCNews.com.

They intended to kill, said former Navy surgeon Dr. Gary Schwendig.

“That person or those people did everything they could to create a bomb that damaged and injured as many people as they possibly could,” said Schwendig, who now works at Scripps Health in San Diego.

It won’t be clear for some time how many patients will need to have limbs amputated.

Many victims of the Boston Marathon bombings face possible amputations in the coming days and months, hospitals reported.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has already performed one amputation, and is working to save another patient’s injured limb. Massachusetts General Hospital has amputated four limbs so far, and is treating two patients who could face amputation in the coming days. At Tufts Medical Center, doctors have not yet performed any full amputations, but four victims have limb-threatening injuries.

A trauma expert in the article says that amputation is often better choice than trying to save a mangled arm or leg. The process of trying to save an extremity can take years and be extremely painful. Even then, amputation may become necessary in the long run.

LA Times: Many Boston victims require limb amputations

It may have lacked the dust and dirt of battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Monday’s bomb attack on the Boston Marathon produced a number of injuries rarely seen outside of war zones — traumatic limb amputations.

Medicine has made great strides in the reattachment of severed limbs in the last two decades, but the nature of bomb blast injuries makes such repairs impossible.

“The only types of injuries that can be re-implanted are those involving clean separations, like a limb that’s been cut off by a sword or industrial machinery that cleanly cuts the arm or leg off,” said Dr. Jeffrey Eckardt, chairman of the orthopedic surgery department at UCLA. “With an explosion, whole sections of the bone and muscles are gone. Vessels and nerves get pulled and stretched and yanked.”

I’ve been unable to find organized information about how many victims were initially brought in to hospitals in critical condition, but this morning I heard on NPR that 62 victims were still being treated in various Boston area hospitals. Some could have been released today. As of yesterday–two days after the bombings–14 patients were still classified as critical, but all are expected to recover.

Two children are still in critical condition.

An 11-year-old California boy and a 9-year-old girl are in critical condition at Boston Children’s Hospital following the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon. A 5-year-old boy is in critical condition at Boston Medical Center.

Aaron Hern, of Martinez, Calif., has undergone multiple operations, including three to four hours of surgery on Wednesday to further treat his badly injured leg, including removing shrapnel and damaged tissue. His 12th birthday is May 1.

The 9-year-old girl also has a severe leg injury.

I just found some information on those who have been released from hospitals. (HuffPo) The article gives specifics on how many patients each hospital had and how many are still critical.

Final Note:

As Dakinikat has pointed out to me, all the focus on the events in Boston is probably inappropriate since there are hundreds (thousands?) of worse bombings every day all over the world.

I guess because I live here, I’m inordinately interested in and emotionally involved with the situation, but I realize not everyone is. Of course for people in New England and those who run marathons, these events will signal a dramatic change. As Charles Pierce wrote, Patriots Day and the Boston Marathon will never be the same.

The Marathon was the old, drunk uncle of Boston sports, the last of the true festival events. Every other one of our major sporting rodeos is locked down, and tightened up, and Fail-Safed until the Super Bowl now is little more than NORAD with bad rock music and offensive tackles. You can’t do that to the Marathon. There was no way to do it. There was no way to lock down, or tighten up, or Fail-Safe into Security Theater a race that covers 26.2 miles, a race that travels from town to town, a race that travels past people’s houses. There was no way to garrison the Boston Marathon. Now there will be. Someone will find a way to do it. And I do not know what the race will be now. I literally haven’t the vaguest clue.

I had actually started writing a post on the explosion in Texas, but then the FBI press conference suddenly came up. This will be my last post on the situation here in Boston unless truly dramatic news of national interest breaks.

42 Comments on “Open Thread: Boston Marathon Bombings”

  1. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    One of the men is clearly white, the other isn’t as easy to see. The man with the white backwards baseball cap is the one who was seen setting down bags. The two were seen together and then separately. The bombs appear to have been set down just before detonation.

    The video footage came from surveillance video outside the Forum Restaurant.

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      April 18, 2013 at 4:41 pm

      US White dudes in the 20s. Surprise surprise ratfuckers!!!

      • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
        April 18, 2013 at 4:43 pm

        no “dark skinned” guys … no Saudis …nope … two baby white American Boys … guess we’ll have to find out who they had the grudge with now ….
        who do you supposed stopped them from getting their way in the world?

        a girlfriend or mother running in the race perhaps?

        a guy that wouldn’t hire them?

        … who oh, who got in the way of all that expected privilege

      • gp's avatar gp says:
        April 18, 2013 at 5:03 pm

        Well, I don’t want to be a contrarian here but I had quite a few friends from Lebanon who were quite white. Skin color for all intents and purposes is irrelevant especially concerning nationality or place of origin.

        Also, I remember the FBI definitively saying in press conferences just like this one that Richard Jewell was the Olympic park bomber. I think he owned some duct tape or something of the sort.

        But, if they are young, white men from here then there is just as good of a chance they lean left and are protesting war, etc. as they would be RW whacko’s. My money is still on RW nutjobs because they are the most violent, the most insane, and the most entrenched into their viewpoint about always being right; however, I just don’t have enough information at this time.

        • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
          April 18, 2013 at 5:08 pm

          I’m frankly thinking it’s a grudge crime. I don’t even think there’s going to be any high minded protest involved most likely. The bombs were not sophisticated at all. Usually, those types leave some kind of manifesto though … outrage about banks or outrage about gun stealing governments depending on the wingnut.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        April 18, 2013 at 5:53 pm

        I have been worried that it will turn out the perps are left-wingers or occupy people myself. Only time will tell.

        • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
          April 18, 2013 at 6:06 pm

          yeah … occupy crossed my mind but why Boston? I just don’t see Boston as the prime target in this … I still think it’s going to be something of a more criminal intent … plus usually the left wing bombers are of both sexes … this group is why I got strip searched at 15 in the Zurich Airport … evidently they attracted US girls even though they were a German faction

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction

          what set the hole chain of events was the Lod Airport massacre and that was by the Japanese Red Army!!! But, any way, many of the lefty bombers were cells that included women and they usually went strictly for political targets … can’t imagine any radical wing of occupy would do something different

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        April 18, 2013 at 11:18 pm

        One serious grudge that young people on the left have: Boston DA Carmen Ruiz and M.I.T. driving Aaron Schwartz to suicide. Now tonight a gunman is loose on M.I.T. campus after shooting and killing campus policeman. He is dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

        http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/cambridge-gunshots/index.html

        http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/18/17817173-campus-police-officer-killed-in-active-shooting-at-mit

        Probably just a coincidence.

      • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
        April 18, 2013 at 11:41 pm

        EEessh. Last thing Boston needed this week is a campus shooter.

  2. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    IMPORTANT: Confusion over Saudis in Boston following marathon attack

    The Saudi student who was wounded in the bombings and then tackled by spectators is not being deported for “security reasons” as Fox and other right wing sites have reported. Another Saudi national has been arrested for being without a VISA. They are two different people.

  3. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    From Twitter: CBS is reporting that investigators already have the names of the men in the videos.

  4. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 6:00 pm

    Here’s one of those much worse bombings: Suicide attack at Baghdad cafe kills at least 26

    A suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Baghdad cafe crowded with young people late Thursday, killing at least 26 and wounding dozens ahead of provincial elections scheduled for the weekend.

    The rare evening attack, which came at the start of the local weekend, brought to 30 the number of people killed across the country Thursday.

    The cafe bomber struck about 9:30 p.m. Police said that two children and a woman who were passing by at the time of the blast were among the dead. More than 50 people were wounded….

    Earlier in the day, a car bomb struck an army convoy in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing three soldiers and wounding five others. Hours later, one policeman was killed and three others were wounded when gunmen attacked a security checkpoint in western Baghdad, police said.

  5. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 6:06 pm

    Some links on the Texas exposion:

    CBS News: Frantic search for survivors after deadly Texas fertilizer plant blast

    HuffPo: Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion: Key Facts About The Blast’s Cause, History And Victims

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      April 18, 2013 at 6:11 pm

      Lee Fang at The Nation: Austerity, Deregulation, and the Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion

      The Dallas Morning News reported that the plant filed papers with state and federal environmental regulators in 2006 claiming that there were “no” fire or explosive risks at the plant. “The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a ten-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one,” noted reporter Randy Lee Loftis. Residents complained about the smell of ammonia as they “went to bed” that year, according to a filing.

      As I pointed out on Twitter last night, in the last five years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has only inspected five fertilizer plants in the entire state of Texas—and the plant in West, Texas was not one of them. OSHA is severely understaffed and operates with a tiny federal budget. With the agency’s current resources, that means “OSHA can inspect a workplace on average once every 129 years and state OSHA inspectors could inspect one every 67 years.”

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        April 18, 2013 at 6:13 pm

        Jim White at Emptywheel: John Galt Kills Texans in Massive Fertilizer Plant Explosion

        Who needs pesky safety regulations or zoning laws when there is money to made running a fertilizer plant? Sadly, the small Texas town of West, which is just north of Waco, is suffering the consequences of unregulated free enterprise today, as a massive explosion at West Fertilizer has leveled much of the town. Perhaps the only remotely fortunate aspect of this tragedy is that it occurred at 8 pm local time and so West Middle School, which burned after the explosion, was not full of children.

        A look at the satellite image above shows the folly of putting “free enterprise” ahead of sensible zoning laws. At almost 20 miles north of Waco, Texas, one thing that is in abundance in the region is open space (I’ve driven past this spot several times in the last two or three years–it’s desolate), and yet this fertilizer plant is immediately adjacent to a large apartment building (see the photo at the top of this article for how that building fared in the explosion) and very close to a middle school. There is no reason at all for any other building to be within two or three miles of a facility that produces material that is so explosive.

        The Texas tradition of low taxes is also having an impact on this tragedy. Note this passage in the New York Times account of the disaster:

        It began with a smaller fire at the plant, West Fertilizer, just off Interstate 35, about 20 miles north of Waco that was attended by local volunteer firefighters, said United States Representative Bill Flores. “The fire spread and hit some of these tanks that contain chemicals to treat the fertilizer,” Mr. Flores said, “and there was an explosion which caused wide damage.”

        That’s right. This fertilizer plant and other businesses in West apparently don’t pay enough in local taxes to support a municipal fire department, and so the first responders to a fire at a fertilizer plant were volunteer firefighters.

        Some of those firefighters are now missing and probably didn’t survive.

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      April 18, 2013 at 6:17 pm

      Czech bakery in West, Texas: “The only thing we did was cut the gas pumps, because we were expecting another blast.” http://ow.ly/kcOWk

  6. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 6:16 pm

    Center for Public Integrity: As critics press for action, Chemical Safety Board investigations languish

  7. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Democracy Now: Besides being uninspected for 5 years, the Tx plant was non-union.

    http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/18/no_osha_inspections_at_texas_plant

    • Fannie's avatar Fannie says:
      April 18, 2013 at 6:33 pm

      I was just reading where OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is run by Feds and State OSHA)…………….they are suppose to show up at the work place any time of the day or night, and show their id, and the employees are suppose to answer any and all questions………….apparently the last inspection by OSHA was 1985, and apparently paid a total of $30 for a violation………………..Something stinks to the high heavens here, no unions, then who gives a schitt about working conditions………….

      I thought Perry said Texas was a nation of it’s own, and didn’t need the Federals for nothing.

      I think Bushie did away with alot of regulations while he was in office.

      • roofingbird's avatar roofingbird says:
        April 19, 2013 at 9:27 am

        Fannie, there are so few inspectors, the best way to get one to show up is for employees to to call and complain about a safety hazard. Some states have no state OSHA just Fed OSHA. Illinois was that way in 2002, last time I was there. That meant 2 inspectors for the entire state.

  8. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 18, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    Marathon runner survives both Boston bombings and Texas fertilizer plant explosion

    http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=9071230

  9. boogieman7167's avatar boogieman7167 says:
    April 18, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    just went to the FBIs website if this is the best photos of they guys that they think where behind the Boston bombing then they got nothing just 2 guys with back packs . CBS reported that they had pic of one of the men laying down his backpack then walking away . if they have it the FBI has not posted it .

  10. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 19, 2013 at 12:04 am

    I’m not sure what’s happening, but two suspects who have explosives and automatic weapons are being chased by state police in the Boston area. It seems to be related to the killing of a campus police officer at MIT. They carjacked a truck in Cambridge and fled–now in Watertown. Police are blocking off streets and calling for interagency assistance.

  11. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 19, 2013 at 12:23 am

    CNN live feed

    http://weplaylive.tv/live-news-stream/

    Police took heavy gunfire, took down one suspect on foot, he’s supposedly on his way to the hosp. Second suspect–police with guns drawn screaming at him and then they yelled second suspect in custody.

    Homeland Security vehicle may have been there, BPD, Watertown police, FBI, Boston undercover police.

    They came from Memorial Drive–which is where MIT is.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      April 19, 2013 at 12:34 am

      They’re reporting on TV that two suspects are in custody but police still have weapons out and they seem to be still actively searching for someone.

      • Woman Voter (@WomanVote)'s avatar Woman Voter (@WomanVote) says:
        April 19, 2013 at 12:37 am

        I am seeing that there is still a man on the floor, one person on twitter said he was throwing grenades at police. What are you hearing BB?

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        April 19, 2013 at 12:42 am

        The FBI is definitely on the scene. Just a few mins. ago, a loud boom was heard in Watertown. Maybe not an explosion, maybe something detonated. They are still searching for another suspect.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        April 19, 2013 at 12:44 am

        Police keep pushing the media back and expanding the search area. There is no confirmation as to who was taking into custody or sent to hosp., etc. News people are questioning a relationships to the bombings because of the FBI presence.

  12. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 19, 2013 at 1:01 am

    This is crazy. They had a suspect on the ground, put in handcuffs, but now he has been released. A guy in the Watertown neighborhood said he heard “officer down, officer down!” He also filmed a bomb robot sweeping the street looking for bombs.

    I wonder if they were trying to plant bombs at MIT? The suspects also highjacked up to three different cars and reportedly kidnapped someone.

  13. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    April 19, 2013 at 3:06 am

    Suspects tried to plant bombs at Stata Center (Building 32), which houses Information Technology dept.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_and_Maria_Stata_Center

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      April 19, 2013 at 3:08 am

      Latest news is that Suspect 1 is still at the scene in Watertown. He was forced to strip naked before being handcuffed. But other media reporting he’s dead. ?????

      Suspects killed MIT police officer, shot a transit cop, shot a cop in Watertown, and robbed a 7-11 and a gas station.

  14. boogieman7167's avatar boogieman7167 says:
    April 19, 2013 at 4:49 am

    BB its sounds like the same ole song and dance all the media outlets are trying to be the first to report they got the bombers , before they have any real evidence that these are the same guys

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