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4:21 P.M. CST — President Obama is expected to deliver a statement today at 5:30 p.m. EST on curbing gun violence.
4:14 P.M. CST — The FBI and police have not given a reason for why the 5 p.m. EST press conference on the Boston bombings has been delayed.
3:53 P.M. CST — Local Boston CBS affiliate WGME reporting that the bomb threat at the Moakley Courthouse has been cleared.
3:50 P.M. CST — Authorities investigating the Boston bombings want to question a wan who was seen, on video, wearing a white baseball cap as a possible suspect in the case, according to reports from CNN.
3:33 P.M. CST — Boston Globe reporting that the 5 p.m. briefing on the Boston Marathon has been cancelled after a bomb scare at the Moakley Courthouse. The Cancellation was announced by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’ office. Ortiz’ office is in the U.S. District Court building that was evacuated earlier this afternoon due to the bomb scare. A new press conference time has not been announced.
2:07 P.M. CST — After reporting that an arrest had been made, CNN is now reporting that two senior administration officials and a federal official told CNN that no arrest had occurred.
CNN says a Boston law enforcement official said “we got him,” but didn’t clarify whether that means authorities have identified a suspect or arrested one. But federal sources say that to say a suspect has been identified goes too far.
1:01 P.M. CST — CNN is reporting that a law enforcement briefing is scheduled for 5 p.m. local time.
12:59 P.M. CST — Here’s the latest from the Associated Press:
“A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is about to be arrested, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Wednesday.
The official was not authorized to divulge details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The suspect was to be taken into custody by federal marshals and taken to a Boston courthouse, the official said.
The official spoke shortly after several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor store between the two bomb blasts.
An official news briefing was scheduled later Wednesday.”
12:50 P.M. CST — Media outlets are now reporting that a suspect has been arrested.
12:45 P.M. CST — Reports are coming in that law enforcement officials may have identified a suspect thought responsible for the bombings. From RT.com:
“Just after 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday, CNN reported that a suspect has apparently been identified. It is unknown as to whether or not the suspect has been detained, and his name has not been made public as of this time, but he is reportedly a dark-skinned male, according to police.
According to CNN’s sources, surveillance video from a Lord and Taylor department store and a local television station are believed to have helped authorities identify the person sought responsible for Monday’s incident, which US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday is being investigated as an act of terror.”
April 17 Updates on Boston bombings:
BOSTON (AP) — A bomber may have been seen amid the Boston Marathon revelers carrying an unusually heavy nylon bag, weighed down with shrapnel-packed explosives, the FBI has suggested. Or perhaps someone heard something beforehand as a culprit tested explosives or expressed an interest in attacking the race.
Law enforcement agencies pleaded Tuesday for the public to come forward with photos, videos or any information that might help them solve the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170 a day earlier. Investigators circulated information about the bombs, which involved kitchen pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and other lethal shrapnel — but the FBI said nobody had claimed responsibility.
“Someone knows who did this,” Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, said at a news conference where he detailed the type of clues a bomber might have left. “Importantly, the person who did this is someone’s friend, neighbor, co-worker or relative.”
President Barack Obama branded the attack an act of terrorism but said officials don’t know “whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual.” Obama plans to attend an interfaith service Thursday in the victims’ honor in Boston.
Scores of victims of the Boston bombing remained in hospitals, many with grievous injuries. Doctors who treated the wounded corroborated reports that the bombs were packed with shrapnel intended to cause mayhem. A 9-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy were among 17 victims listed in critical condition.
Heightening jitters in Washington, where security already had been tightened after the bombing, a letter addressed to a senator and poisoned with ricin or a similarly toxic substance was intercepted at a mail facility outside the capital, lawmakers said.
There was no immediate indication the episode was related to the Boston attack. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the letter was sent to Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
In the Boston case, an intelligence bulletin issued to law enforcement includes a picture of a mangled pressure cooker and a torn black bag that the FBI said were part of a bomb that exploded during the marathon.
DesLauriers said cooperation from the community will play a key role in the investigation. He said the range of suspects remained wide open, but by midday Tuesday more than 2,000 tips had been received.
The bombs exploded 10 or more seconds apart, tearing off victims’ limbs and spattering streets with blood. The blasts near the finish line instantly turned the festive race into a hellish scene of confusion, horror and heroics.
The blasts killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, of Boston, and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, of Medford. The Shenyang Evening News, a state-run Chinese newspaper, identified the third victim as Lu Lingzi. She was a graduate student at Boston University.
Officials found that the bombs in Boston consisted of explosives put in ordinary, 1.6-gallon pressure cookers, one with shards of metal and ball bearings, the other with nails, according to a person close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe was still going on.
Both bombs were stuffed into black bags and left on the ground, the person said.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, all four amputations performed there were above the knee, with no hope of saving more of the legs, said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery.
“It wasn’t a hard decision to make,” he said. “We just completed the ugly job that the bomb did.”
DesLauriers confirmed that investigators had found pieces of black nylon from a bag or backpack and fragments of BBs and nails, possibly contained in a pressure cooker. He said the items were sent to the FBI laboratory at Quantico, Va., for analysis.
Investigators said they have not yet determined what was used to set off the explosives.
DesLauriers said there had been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
In the wake of the attack, security was stepped up around the White House and across the country. Police massed at federal buildings and transit centers in the nation’s capital, critical response teams deployed in New York City, and security officers with bomb-sniffing dogs spread through Chicago’s Union Station.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the stepped-up security was a precaution and that there was no evidence the bombings were part of a wider plot.
Pressure-cooker explosives have been used in international terrorism, and have been recommended for lone-wolf operatives by Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen.
But information on how to make the bombs is readily found online, and U.S. officials said Americans should not rush to judgment in linking the attack to overseas terrorists.
Pressure-cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 intelligence report by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department. One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, the report said.
“Placed carefully, such devices provide little or no indication of an impending attack,” the report said.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the 2010 attempt in Times Square, has denied any part in the Boston Marathon attack.
Investigators in the Boston bombing were combing surveillance tapes from businesses around the finish line and asking travelers at Logan Airport to share any photos or video that might help.
“This is probably one of the most photographed areas in the country yesterday,” said Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis. He said two security sweeps of the marathon route had been conducted before the blasts.
Boston police and firefighter unions announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to arrests.
April 16 Updates from Mint Press News:
Hoping to gather as much evidence as possible so investigators can find the person(s) or group(s) responsible behind the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, the FBI has asked for the public to turn over any amateur video and photos of the incident.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben encouraged the public to share any video, audio and photos taken yesterday at the event, even if it doesn’t appear significant. “There has to be hundreds, if not thousands, of photos and videos” that might help investigators,” he said.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis shared that investigators have a large number of surveillance tapes from businesses in the area — since the bombings occurred at one of the most photographed areas in the country — and that they will go through tapes frame by frame.
The FBI has taken over the investigation into the two bombs that exploded seconds apart on Monday at the Boston Marathon finish line. Three people have been confirmed dead thus far, including an 8-year-old boy, and more than 176 people are wounded, 17 of whom are in critical condition.
Why the bombs were detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon specifically is not yet known, but Monday was one of the city’s biggest civic holidays — Patriots Day, which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution, at Concord and Lexington in 1775.
Uncertainty of why this event or area was targeted has prompted police to tighten security across the U.S. and monitor landmarks, government buildings, transit hubs and sporting events more closely.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called the bombings “a cruel act of terror” and said “a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned or carried out by a terror group, foreign or domestic.”
President Obama also delivered a statement earlier on Tuesday saying the FBI is investigating an act of terrorism.
“This was a heinous and cowardly act and given what we now know the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism,” President Obama said.
Richard DesLauriers is the FBI agent in charge in Boston. He says investigators have received “voluminous tips” thus far and were interviewing witnesses and analyzing the crime scene.
Agents also reportedly searched a home in the Boston suburb of Revere Monday night. Details have not been released about whether the investigators found anything, but agents were seen leaving the home with brown paper bags, plastic trash bags and a duffel bag.
“We will go to the ends of the Earth to identify the subject or subjects who are responsible for this despicable crime, and we will do everything we can to bring them to justice,” said DesLauriers.
Other than that the FBI is looking for more evidence, investigators have remained relatively mum about their findings thus far. Gov. Deval Patrick did say that contrary to what was previously reported, the only bombs that were found were the ones that went off, but the FBI is refusing to give specifics even in regard to where the bombs were hidden and whether they were packed with shrapnel.
Dr. Stephen Epstein of the emergency medicine department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said he saw an X-ray of one victim’s leg that had “what appears to be small, uniform, round objects throughout it — similar in the appearance to BBs.”
“These are very high-force, high-impact injuries so they cause a lot of damage to tissue and to bone,” said Ron Walls, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Davis, the police commissioner, said authorities had not received any specific intelligence that anything was going to happen at the race, and said that two security sweeps of the route had been conducted before the marathon. (Katie Rucke, Mint Press News)
Below is prior coverage by The Associated Press:
BOSTON (AP) – Two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 130 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs that raised alarms that terrorists might have struck again in the U.S.
A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still unfolding said the attack was being treated as an act of terrorism.
President Barack Obama vowed that those responsible will “feel the full weight of justice.”
As many as two unexploded bombs were also found near the end of the 26.2-mile course as part of what appeared to be a well-coordinated attack, but they were safely disarmed, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.
The fiery twin blasts took place about 10 seconds and about 100 yards apart, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending dense plumes of smoke rising over the street and through the fluttering national flags lining the course. Blood stained the pavement, and huge shards were missing from window panes as high as three stories.
“They just started bringing people in with no limbs,” said runner Tim Davey of Richmond, Va. He said he and his wife, Lisa, tried to keep their children’s eyes shielded from the gruesome scene inside a medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners, but “they saw a lot.”
“They just kept filling up with more and more casualties,” Lisa Davey said. “Most everybody was conscious. They were very dazed.”
Authorities shed no light on a motive or who may have carried out the bombings, and police said they had no suspects in custody. Authorities in Washington said there was no immediate claim of responsibility. The FBI took charge of the investigation.
Police said three people were killed. Hospitals reported at least 134 injured, at least 15 of them critically. The victims’ injuries included broken bones, shrapnel wounds and ruptured eardrums.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, Alisdair Conn, chief of emergency services, said: “This is something I’ve never seen in my 25 years here … this amount of carnage in the civilian population. This is what we expect from war.”
Some 23,000 runners took part in the race, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious marathons.
One of Boston’s biggest annual events, the race winds up near Copley Square, not far from the landmark Prudential Center and the Boston Public Library. It is held on Patriots Day, which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution, at Concord and Lexington in 1775.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis asked people to stay indoors or go back to their hotel rooms and avoid crowds as bomb squads methodically checked parcels and bags left along the race route. He said investigators didn’t know whether the bombs were hidden in mailboxes or trash cans.
He said authorities had received “no specific intelligence that anything was going to happen” at the race.
The Federal Aviation Administration barred low-flying aircraft within 3.5 miles of the site.
“We still don’t know who did this or why,” Obama said at the White House, adding, “Make no mistake: We will get to the bottom of this.”
With scant official information to guide them, members of Congress said there was little or no doubt it was an act of terrorism.
“We just don’t know whether it’s foreign or domestic,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
A few miles away from the finish line and around the same time, a fire broke out at the John F. Kennedy Library. The police commissioner said that it may have been caused by an incendiary device and that it was not clear whether it was related to the bombings.
The first explosion occurred on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the finish line.
When the second bomb went off, the spectators’ cheers turned to screams. As sirens blared, emergency workers and National Guardsmen who had been assigned to the race for crowd control began climbing over and tearing down temporary fences to get to the blast site.
The bombings occurred about four hours into the race and two hours after the men’s winner crossed the line. By that point, more than 17,000 of the athletes had finished the race, but thousands more were still running.
The attack may have been timed for maximum carnage: The four-hour mark is typically a crowded time near the finish line because of the slow-but-steady recreational runners completing the race and because of all the friends and relatives clustered around to cheer them on.
Runners in the medical tent for treatment of dehydration or other race-related ills were pushed out to make room for victims of the bombing.
A woman who was a few feet from the second bomb, Brighid Wall, 35, of Duxbury, said that when it exploded, runners and spectators froze, unsure of what to do. Her husband threw their children to the ground, lay on top of them and another man lay on top of them and said, “Don’t get up, don’t get up.”
After a minute or so without another explosion, Wall said, she and her family headed to a Starbucks and out the back door through an alley. Around them, the windows of the bars and restaurants were blown out.
She said she saw six to eight people bleeding profusely, including one man who was kneeling, dazed, with blood trickling down his head. Another person was on the ground covered in blood and not moving.
“My ears are zinging. Their ears are zinging,” Wall said. “It was so forceful. It knocked us to the ground.”
Competitors and race volunteers were crying as they fled the chaos. Authorities went onto the course to carry away the injured, while race stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site.
Roupen Bastajian, a state trooper from Smithfield, R.I., had just finished the race when he heard the blasts.
“I started running toward the blast. And there were people all over the floor,” he said. “We started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. A lot of people amputated. … At least 25 to 30 people have at least one leg missing, or an ankle missing, or two legs missing.”
The race honored the victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting with a special mile marker in Monday’s race.
Boston Athletic Association president Joanne Flaminio previously said there was “special significance” to the fact that the race is 26.2 miles long and 26 people died at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
