Boston Strong Read online

  She saw it and said aloud, “Thank God.”

  It turns out she had been in surgery for nine hours. She went in around 4 p.m. on April 15 and came out about 1 a.m. on April 16.

  A doctor entered her room and told her the wound to her arm had just missed her main artery. Had that artery been severed, she almost assuredly would have lost her arm — and quite possibly died.

  “You’re very lucky,” the doctor said.

  She didn’t sleep most of that first night. Brian and her best friend, Sare Largay, were there. Michelle started reading posts on Facebook and was sickened by the news of what was happening. At length, she drifted off.

  When she awoke, she smelled flowers. Her friend Caroline was in the bed next to her, and their room was filled with deliveries of flowers, chocolates, gift baskets, and stuffed animals. Some were from friends, some were from Michelle’s co-workers, others were from Caroline’s friends. Michelle was overwhelmed. There were so many that she told one of the nurses to send some to other patients in the hospital who didn’t have any.

  And then a stream of visitors arrived. Among the first to visit was her friend Nicole. She told Michelle she saw the first explosion, then heard the second one behind her and didn’t know where to run.

  “I was so scared I didn’t know whether to run or hide under a car or behind a bush. I was worried about you guys,” she said.

  She and Caroline talked about what had happened. Their other friend Christian nearly lost his leg, but doctors were able to save it. Caroline learned during her treatment that she was two weeks pregnant and that the baby was unharmed. In December 2013 — roughly eight months after the attacks — Caroline gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whom the couple named Marlowe Eve.

  Around noon on Tuesday, Michelle’s dad arrived at the hospital. He walked in, gazed deeply at Michelle in her hospital bed, and leaned over to gave her a big hug. Not normally an emotional guy, the gruff firefighter was overcome, and tears welled up in his eyes.

  “You’re going to be OK, doll. You’re going to get through this,” he told her. “I’m very proud of you. You got through this.”

  Paul L’Heureux, besides being a retired firefighter, served in the military and is active in the American Legion. It was very hard for him to see his daughter injured by terrorism on American soil. He stayed in Boston for three days, bedding down at a nearby hospital, and visited daily.

  While bombing survivor Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs, was under heavy anesthesia, one of the men credited with saving his life was under heavy scrutiny about his actions before the bombing. Carlos Arredondo had reunited with his friend John Mixon at the apartment of John’s daughter. Mixon had just gotten off the phone with the FBI.

  “They want to talk to you,” he told Carlos. “They mentioned what happened in Florida.”

  Mixon was referring to his friend’s highly publicized suicide attempt. When Arredondo returned to his home in Roslindale, Massachusetts, early that evening, he was met by a Boston Police detective and an FBI agent who asked him for his shoes, pants, and T-shirt. Carlos immediately obliged. The federal agent also seized his camera, which had several photos he had snapped at the marathon.

  “Can you retrace your footsteps during the race?” the agent asked. “Where precisely were you when the bombs went off? What did you see? What did you do?”

  Arredondo answered the questions as best he could. The grilling lasted for about forty minutes.

  When Jeff Bauman arrived at Boston Medical Center, he told a police officer there, “I know who did it.”

  Bauman remembered locking eyes with a suspicious-looking man outside Marathon Sports just before the bomb went off. The man wore a thick, hooded coat, and he looked serious. Bauman found his demeanor odd given the party atmosphere around them. He turned his attention away briefly, and when Bauman looked back — the man was gone.

  Bauman was rushed into surgery before he could explain what he saw. Hours later, after he woke up, he asked for a pen and a piece of paper. On it, Bauman wrote, “Bag. Saw the guy. He looked right at me.”

  Earlier that same Monday night — just hours after his bombs had blown apart so many lives — one of the Tsarnaev brothers wrote a message of his own.

  “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city,” Dhzokhar Tsarnaev tweeted. “Stay safe people.”

  He followed that Twitter message with another at 12:34 a.m. on Tuesday.

  “There are people that know the truth but remain silent & there are people that speak the truth but we don’t hear them cuz they’re the minority.”

  Boylston Street just moments before the first bomb exploded in front of Marathon Sports. Courtesy: Colton Kilgore

  A pair of bloodied jeans and socks removed from a bombing victim by EMTs on Boylston Street. Courtesy: Colton Kilgore

  Exclusive image taken from a video camera inside the first bomb blast. Courtesy: Colton Kilgore

  The Tsarnaev brothers captured on surveillance cameras walking down Boylston Street shortly before the bombings. Courtesy: FBI

  Boston Police Detective Danny Keeler, aka Mr. Homicide. Photo by Dave Wedge

  Boston Police Officer Javier Pagan was just one of the heroes who saved others on Boylston Street. Courtesy: Javier Pagan

  Heather Abbott lost her leg in the second bomb blast, but thanks to her courage and resiliency, she is back doing the things she loves. Courtesy: Heather Abbott

  The Richard family, seen here on a trip to Washington, DC, attended the Boston Marathon just about every year. Courtesy: Larry Marchese

  The first words Jane Richard spoke when she awoke from a coma were: “Martin, where are you?” Courtesy: Larry Marchese

  Tracy Munro and her daughter, Stella. The Cambridge mom helped comfort Jane Richard after the bomb blast. Courtesy: Tracy Munro

  MIT Police Officer Sean Collier on a trip to Nova Scotia in March 2013, one month before he was murdered. Courtesy: Sally Miller

  Sean Collier’s comrades stand at attention over his casket during a memorial service for the fallen officer at MIT. Courtesy: Governor Deval Patrick’s Office / Spencer Crispino

  The World Series trophy placed on the finish line during the celebration parade for the Boston Red Sox. Photo by Dave Wedge

  Marathon survivors Sabrina Dello Russo and Michelle L’Heureux discover a touch of home in Cluny, France. Photo by Casey Sherman

  Marathon hero Jeff Bauman spending a late night on board the Marathon Heroes Cruise through the south of France. Photo by Casey Sherman

  Marathon hero Carlos Arredondo shares a moment with survivor Mery Daniel at an event in Boston. Photo by Casey Sherman

  Arredondo comforts Jun Lu, father of victim Lingzi Lu, aboard the Marathon Heroes Cruise. Photo by Casey Sherman

  Seventy-one-year-old survivor Bill White, shown here on the cruise to France, lost a leg in the bombing at Marathon Sports. Photo by Casey Sherman

  Governor Patrick and his wife, Diane, walk with Denise and Jane Richard down Boylston Street on the first anniversary of the marathon bombings. Mayor Martin J. Walsh and girlfriend Lorrie Higgins are on the far right. Courtesy: Governor Deval Patrick’s Office / Eric Haynes

  Denise Richard holds daughter Jane during the memorial service marking the first anniversary of the marathon bombings. Courtesy: Governor Deval Patrick’s Office / Eric Haynes

  [15]

  CITIZEN SOLDIERS

  Late Monday night, Kurt Schwartz suggested to Commissioner Davis, Mayor Menino, and the governor that three hundred soldiers from the Massachusetts National Guard be used to help secure the perimeter of what was now a twenty-block crime scene around Boylston Street. The troops were on duty for the marathon, and Schwartz held them over after the bombing. Schwartz wasn’t sure whether he would get approval for the idea, as the thought of armed soldiers patrolling the streets of Boston might create even more panic.

  “Yeah, I can use them,” Davis said without thinking twice.

  Mayor Menino did not say anything.


  Schwartz then turned to Governor Patrick. “Are you OK with that?”

  “Absolutely,” the governor replied.

  Schwartz immediately got a hold of the National Guard troops’ commander, Major General L. Scott Rice, and told him about the plan. Both men decided that three hundred soldiers were not enough, so with the governor’s approval they activated one thousand soldiers to join city, state, and transit police to guard every hotel, every train station, and every spot in the city where people gathered in large groups — including Boston’s most popular tourist attraction, the marketplace at Faneuil Hall.

  It was the largest deployment of soldiers in the city of Boston since 1919, when then Governor Calvin Coolidge ordered five thousand guard members into action to quell the violent Boston Police Strike, which left nine people dead and sections of the city in rubble.

  As dawn broke on Tuesday, April 16, law enforcement still had no idea exactly what they were dealing with. Information was trickling in from members of the FBI’s evidence response team who had recovered bomb fragments, the accounts of victims and witnesses who were giving statements of things they saw, and from the thousands of photographs and videos taken with smartphones before and after the bombers struck.

  Though he’d had very little sleep the night before, Governor Patrick knew that he had to remain visible and helpful, yet not to get in the way of the cops and others out there trying to do their jobs.

  “I visited the BAA office just outside Copley Square,” he recalls. “People there were just devastated. They were really shaken, crying. I tried to comfort them by telling them they had performed beautifully.”

  He also visited Mass General and shook hands with the doctors and nurses who had managed to save every life that had come through their doors over the previous twenty-four hours. In fact, no responding hospital lost a single person injured in the bombings.

  The governor then returned to the command center at the Westin hotel, where he gave the first media briefing of the day, surrounded by members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation who had gathered in a show of support. Governor Patrick first wanted to address rumors that a third bomb had been discovered under the grandstand on Boylston Street.

  “It’s important to clarify that two and only two explosive devices were found yesterday,” he said. “Other parcels, all other parcels in the area of the blast have been examined but there were no unexploded bombs.”

  The governor then announced that FBI Special Agent in Charge Rick DesLauriers would head the probe.

  “This will be a combined federal, state, and local effort. It will be an ongoing investigation. It is a criminal investigation,” DesLauriers said in the news conference. “The FBI is bringing substantial — very, very substantial — federal resources to bear along with our federal partners. The ATF is well-represented here.”

  He described it as a “potential terrorist investigation” — marking the first time officials had publicly done so — and asked the public for a “heightened state of vigilance” because the bombers were still at-large.

  “We will bring those responsible to justice as quickly as possible,” he said.

  Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis echoed those remarks.

  “This cowardly act will not be taken in stride. We will turn over every rock to find those responsible.”

  Davis then acknowledged ominously: “There is no suspect.”

  He did let the media know that there were people of interest that investigators were now speaking to.

  The city was in full security mode. Armored Humvees cluttered Boston Common, where the colonial militia had mustered before the American Revolution. Hotels, hospitals, colleges, and government buildings were patrolled by federal, state, and local cops, all armed with semi-automatic rifles. Copley Plaza was cordoned off with yellow tape and police barricades.

  TV satellite trucks were parked around the Common and at the mouth of desolate Boylston Street. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer gave live updates from tents set up at the corner of Boylston and Arlington streets.

  The fact that no international group took responsibility for the attack only added to the confusion and mystery surrounding the bombings.

  “It means we know less than we thought we would at this point,” US Senator Elizabeth Warren said at the news conference. “It means the investigation needs to remain very open.”

  US Representative Stephen Lynch also spoke at the media briefing. The congressman was especially close to the situation because the Richard family had worked on his campaigns over the years, and also because Denise Richard worked at Marian Manor, a senior living facility in Lynch’s South Boston neighborhood. The blue-collar congressman, a former iron worker, lives in Southie, just a mile or so from the Richard home in the Ashmont section of Dorchester. He’s a leader in the Massachusetts Democratic Party and had grown to become friends with Bill Richard and the family. At the Westin, Lynch talked about visiting the distraught family in the hospital.

  “They’re close friends [of mine],” Lynch said. “Bill has ball bearings from the blast embedded in his skin. The older boy, Henry, has post-traumatic symptoms. It shows just how random this violence is, that one son was taken and one was not.”

  Lynch, a member of Congress’s Armed Services Committee, knew plenty about the IEDs American troops faced in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had traveled to the war-torn regions several times with congressional delegations and was a crucial driving force behind efforts to improve the quality of armored vehicles used by American soldiers. Lynch had seen IEDs up close in Iraq and even had to take cover in bunkers during attacks while visiting Iraq in 2008.

  Lynch knew that the ball bearings used in the bombs and “the timing” of the coordinated blasts had all the hallmarks of a jihadist attack.

  “This isn’t some kid in his garage,” he said. “Having two explosions, eleven seconds apart — that points to someone who has training and expertise…. It’s an antipersonnel device. They were trying to cause carnage here.”

  Special Agent in Charge DesLauriers said that items were still being collected from the scene, including BBs, nails, and pieces of black nylon believed to be from the bombers’ backpacks. Pieces of the pressure cooker bombs were recovered from rooftops. People reported smelling gunpowder.

  All of the items, along with thousands of pictures and videos — including eleven from outside Forum — were sent to the FBI’s crime lab in Quantico, Virginia. More than two thousand tips had flooded in to the FBI and Boston and state police.

  “We are doing this methodically and carefully, yet with a sense of urgency,” DesLauriers said. “The investigation is in its infancy, but rest assured, we are working hard. The range of suspects and motives is wide open. Someone knows who did this. Cooperation from the community will play a crucial role in this investigation.”

  The initial shock having worn off, reporters and pundits turned their questions to second-guessing: Did the city perform bomb sweeps that morning? Could the attacks have been thwarted?

  It was far too early in the probe to know the answers, but Lynch and Davis tried to calm the public’s fears. Lynch said authorities took “all the appropriate steps” and believed the devices were brought into the area after police did a security sweep.

  “There was nothing to lead us to believe that what we were doing, what the mayor was doing, what the governor was doing, was less than appropriate,” he said. “The staffing was there, the sweeps were there…. They did their due diligence. But … under these circumstances, it was very difficult to stop.”

  Added Davis: “There were more officers assigned this year than ever before. We were particularly concerned with the finish line this year.”

  The reason for the increased security wasn’t a specific threat; rather, it was because the 2012 marathon had seen one of the biggest crowds ever at the finish line.

  “There was no specific threat for this event,” Davis reiterated.

 
Governor Patrick called for people to donate blood, noting that many victims required multiple transfusions.

  “There is a need for blood on a sustained basis,” he said.

  He also offered prayers for the wounded and the families of the dead. He thanked first responders for their extraordinary efforts in preventing the death toll from getting higher and announced initial plans for an interfaith prayer service to help the city and the state to heal.

  “That was a priority for me,” Patrick recalls. “I wanted to make sure that we allowed all folks an outlet to express their grief and to come together.”

  The governor urged survivors to take advantage of a support center which had been set up at The Castle at the Boston Park Plaza where workers from the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the Boston Public Health Commission reunited lost friends and loved ones who had been separated after the bombings, helped locate bags that had been abandoned at the finish line, and provided immediate psychiatric care for those who had witnessed the kind of horrific bloodshed and destruction they’d only ever seen in the movies, but never before in real life.

  In a token gesture, the Boston Athletic Association brought over a section of the adhesive finish line to allow runners who had been stopped during the marathon before they got to Boylston Street a chance to cross the tape and receive their medals. Runners had trained for months, even years, for a chance to compete in the Boston Marathon, and the sense of shock and frustration was overwhelming for some.