Boston Marathon Bombing

NPR Investigates What Happened During Watertown Shootout, Manhunt

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WBUR reporter and Watertown resident Bruce Gellerman set out to figure out exactly what happened during the Watertown Shootout and Manhunt, two years after the dramatic events in town. Gellerman put together a two-part audio timeline of the events for National Public Radio covering the events of April 18 and 19, 2013, when the Boston Marathon Bombing suspects carjacked a Mercedes SUV and got into a shootout with Watertown Police and the manhunt and ultimate capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The report played on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition includes interviews of Watertown Police, residents and police radio. Some of the interviews include information not included in the official report or presented at trial, in which the jury recently found Tsarnaev guilty. He said the recently released report looking at the Boston Marathon Bombing response and the shootout and manhunt in Watertown got some things wrong, and some things left out.

Boston Marathon Bombing

Boston Marathon Bomber Case Goes to the Jury after Closing Arguments

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Jurors in the case against accused Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev heard final arguments from attorneys on Monday, and now must decide his fate. 

Prosecutors said the Tsarnaev brothers “were the mujahedeen, and they were bringing their battle to Boston,” according to an account of the court proceedings in the New York Times.  They said Dzhokhar wanted to “punish America for what it was doing to his people,” according to the Times. Tsarnaev’s defense attorney, however, argued that he was an “adolescent” who just followed his older brother Tamerlan into carrying out the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Tamerlan was killed in the firefight in Watertown after being run over by Dzhokhar, according to the Boston Globe. The jury of seven women and five men, all white, will consider 30 counts against Tsarnaev, one of which is if he used a weapon of mass destruction.

Police/Fire

Report Gives Mixed Reviews of Police During Search for Marathon Bomber

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A study of efforts to stop and capture the Boston Marathon Bombing suspects had mixed reviews of law enforcements’ use of force, and other practices of police in Watertown. The report led by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), was released this week, according to a report on Boston.com. See the full report by clicking here. The first officers on the scene, all Watertown Police officers, “practiced appropriate weapons discipline while they were engaged in the firefight with the suspects.”

Some of that followed quickly afterward from a variety of departments however, fired without identifying the suspect and a times without first aiming, the report found. In one incident that night, plain clothed State Police troopers were fired on when their SUV was misidentified as being stolen.

Police/Fire

Owner of Watertown Boat Describes Finding the Marathon Bombing Suspect

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The owner of the infamous “Watertown Boat” described finding the Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston Federal Court on Tuesday. 

Dave Henneberry, a lifelong Watertown resident, had shrink wrapped up his boat, SlipAway II, and parked it in the yard of his Franklin Street home. The testimony comes from live social media reports from reporters at the Boston Federal Court House. When the “shelter in place” had been lifted on the evening of April 20, 2013, Henneberry went out and noticed the wrapping had come loose. When he looked closer, he saw the zipper to the plastic covering was open, so he looked inside. “I noticed a lot of blood …

Police/Fire

Watertown’s Day at Trial of Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect

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Nearly two years after the suspected Boston Marathon bombers interrupted a quiet April night in Watertown with gunfire and homemade bombs, the events of April 18 2013 and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s role in them were examined in Federal Court in Boston. On Thursday, jurors in the trial of Tsarnaev saw testimony about the killing of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier by the Dzhokhar and his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev while Collier sat in his police cruiser in Cambridge. Then the jurors heard from Dun Meng, the owner of the now infamous black Mercedes SUV that was carjacked Tamerlan. He rode in the vehicle for 20-30 minutes, eventually pulling over on a street in Watertown where another car pulled up behind him and loaded something in his SUV. Meng said the other man was Dzhokhar.

Schools

Expert Giving Advice on Dealing with Issues in Kids Due to Marathon Bombing

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With the beginning of the trial of the Boston Marathon Bombing suspect, memories of the tragic and disturbing events of April of 2013 could come up – especially in children. The Watertown Public Schools will host a forum for parents to help them deal with situations that may arise. 

On Wednesday, Jan. 14, a licensed clinical psychologist will speak at Watertown High School from 7 to 8:30 p.m. to talk about emotions and reactions children may have as the Bombings, and shootout and manhunt in Watertown come up with the start of the trial. The event was organized and provided by the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA). The event includes:

A discussion of how such events impact the lives of our children.

Police/Fire

Marathon Bombing Trial Begins, Plea Deal Not Reached

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The trial of the accused Boston Marathon Bomber began Monday after attorneys failed to come to a plea agreement and Federal judges ruled the trial should go on in Boston. During the first few days of the week, a pool of 1,200 potential jurors from around Eastern Massachusetts will head to the Boston Federal Court to take part in the jury selection process, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The jurors will consider the fate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the bombing at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon that killed three. He and his older brother Tamerlan also are suspects in the killing of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. They were stopped in Watertown after a shootout with Watertown Police and law enforcement from other departments on April 19, 2013.