The 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing
The Boston Marathon is an annual event that involves athletes who participate in the event from different geographical locations. The marathon attracts a big crowd from different parts of the world some who come to cheer their athletes while others come to witness the event.
On April 15, 2013, the Boston Marathon was held on the following streets, 671, 673 as well as the 755 Boylston in Boston, in the United States. At 2.49 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) an attack was conducted by a group of terrorists and the primary target was the Boston Marathon. The terrorists used bombs that included two bombs made from a pressure cooker. The attack was conducted towards the end of the race with around three hours erupted after the first athlete had completed the track event. As a result of the attack, three people died, and 264 individuals were left with non-fatal injuries.
The terror attack was carried out by two culprits who were identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The attackers were seeking vengeance against the action of the United States military in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan.
Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the case to examine the bombing. Within three days, they identified and released two images of the suspects to the terrorist activity. Identification showed that the two were Kyrgyz-American brothers, Tarmerlan and Dhozhokhar Tsarnaev. The two suspects had killed an officer working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They had also carried out a kidnapping where a man was kidnapped while he was in his vehicle. A shootout had happened at the Watertown which is a nearby town, which involved the two suspects and the police officers, leaving two officers in a critical condition. Tarmerlan was seriously injured, and he died while his brother tried to save him using the car they previously hijacked.
On April 19, a search for Dhozhokhar was issued which saw the law enforcing officers turn their activities to the pursuit of the suspect. The residents of the Watertown were urged to be indoors to facilitate the search while the transport system, public places and the business within the Watertown remained closed during the search. A resident identified the suspect at around 6.00 pm EDT, where the suspect was hiding on a boat, and the officers fired hurting him severally before taking him to the custody (Tapia, Lalone & Kim, 2014).
Interrogating the suspect
There was interrogation between the suspect and the officers at the custody to identify the root cause of the attack. The suspect identified the act to be motivated by the Islamic beliefs and the wars that took place in Iraq and Afghanistan where the US military participated and that they wanted to seek revenge for the actions of the military. The suspected denied any connection to any terrorist group and insisted that they were self-radicalized. According to the suspect, he was executing the attack under the instructions of his deceased brother. He also acknowledged that they learned how to make bombs from the al-Qaeda magazine. In 2015, the suspect was sentenced to life imprisonment with over 30 charges.
Bombing
The bombing was accomplished using two bombs which were made out of two pressure cookers which were set 190 meters apart. They were placed toward the finish line of the Boston Marathon, which was on Boylston Street. The first explosion took place at 671-673 street, outside the marathon space at 2.49.43 p.m. while the second exploded 14 seconds later at Boylston 755 Street. The bombing took place three hours after the first runner had concluded the race, leaving behind 5700 more runners still in the process of completing their race.
Rescue
The rescue team that was assigned to take care of the marathon and first aiders started attending the victims immediately while more officers and medical experts were scheduled to participate in the victims. The bombing claimed three lives while there was an estimated figure of 264 people who were injured and they received their medication in the 27 local medical outlets (Paul, Biddinger & Aaron, 2013). Because of the explosion, 14 people required evacuation from the site as they suffered trauma.
Following the attack, 15 blocks were set up within the area, but as the following day, these blocks were reduced to 12. The residents were requested to stay indoors to facilitate the investigations by the officers on the streets. The fear of more bombing activities by the terrorists was in the mind of the residents, and they feared that John.F Library was one of the spots that terrorists are targeting (Starbid, Jim, Mania & Robert, 2014). The authority issued an order that the residents should avoid making calls but use texting instead to reduce the traffic and facilitate the investigation.
Due to the many people who wanted to know about the welfare of their loved ones and their athletes, the Boston Police Department went ahead to set up a helpline where people got informed about their loved ones. A Google person finder was another platform where one could obtain information about their friends who were at the Boston Marathon through logging in to the site.
Work cited
Paul, Biddinger, Aaron. Be prepared- The Boston Marathon and Mass Casualty Events. The New England Journal of Medicine 2013: 1958-1960
Starbird, Jim, Mania, Robert. Rumors, False Flags And digital Vigilantes: Misinformation on Twitter after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. iConference proceedings 2014: 654-662
Tapia, Lalone, Kim. Run Amok: Group Crowd Participation In Identifying the Bomb And Bomber From Boston Marathon Bombing. Proceedings of the 11th International ISCRAM Conference 2014: 265-273