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Authorities believe they have identified a suspect
(CNN) -- Investigators believe they have identified a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, a source who has been briefed on the investigation told CNN's John King exclusively.
The breakthrough came from analysis of video from a department store near the site of the second explosion. Video from a Boston television station also contributed to the progress, said the source, who declined to be more specific but called it a significant development.
Earlier, a federal law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation told CNN that a lid to a pressure cooker thought to have been used in the bombings had been found on a roof of a building near the scene.
"If your experience and your expertise is Middle East terrorism, it has the hallmarks of al Qaeda or a Middle East group," former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes said. "If your experience is domestic groups and bombings that have occurred here, it has the hallmarks of a domestic terrorist like Eric Rudolph in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics bombings."
Things we know
Fuentes said he has investigated both types of terrorism -- from Iraq to the United States -- and finds the Boston attack has elements of both. "It has the hallmarks of both domestic and international (attacks), and you can see either side of that."
The bombs
The bombs, which exploded 12 seconds apart, killed three people and wounded 183.
One was housed in a pressure cooker hidden inside a backpack, the FBI said in a joint intelligence bulletin. The device also had fragments that may have included nails, BBs and ball bearings, the agency said.
The second bomb was also housed in a metal container, but it was not clear whether it too was in a pressure cooker, the FBI said.
The U.S. government has warned federal agencies in the past that terrorists could turn pressure cookers into bombs by packing them with explosives and shrapnel and detonating them with blasting caps.
Photos obtained by CNN show the remains of a pressure cooker found at the scene, along with a shredded black backpack and what appear to be metal pellets or ball bearings.
Scraps of at least one pressure cooker, nails and nylon bags found at the scene were sent to the FBI's national laboratory in Virginia, where technicians will try to reconstruct the devices, the agent leading the investigation said Tuesday.
The pieces suggest each of the devices was 6 liters (about 1.6 gallons) in volume, a Boston law enforcement source said. The recovered parts include part of a circuit board, which might have been used to detonate a device.
A law enforcement official said Monday's bombs were probably detonated by timers. But the FBI said details of the detonating system were unknown.
The attack has left Boston police with "the most complex crime scene that we've dealt with in the history of our department," Commissioner Ed Davis said Tuesday.
Authorities are sifting through more than 2,000 tips and a mass of digital photos and video clips, but are asking for the public's help in providing additional leads and images.
"Someone knows who did this," said Rick DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office. "Cooperation from the community will play a crucial role in this investigation."
DesLauriers asked the public to report anyone who may have talked about targeting the marathon or shown interest in explosives. He urged anyone who may have heard explosions in remote areas -- possibly indicating a bomb test -- or seen someone carrying "an unusually heavy, dark-colored bag" around the time of the attack to come forward.
Who may have wanted to cause mass destruction -- and whether the individual or individuals acted alone or as part of a group -- remained a mystery.
"We really don't know if it's a foreign or domestic threat," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "We don't know whether this was a homegrown terrorist or part of a wider conspiracy."
A "lone wolf" attacker could be particularly difficult to identify.
"This is what you worry about the most," a source with knowledge of the investigation said. "No trail, no intelligence."
"Boston is not going to be intimidated by this," said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, in testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. "But we are going to find out who did this. The police work being done is extraordinary. The FBI is remarkable. There is a great deal of forensic evidence. We are hopeful we can bring people to justice."
Clues from inside the hospital
Medical personnel treating the wounded found evidence suggesting the bombmaker or bombmakers sought to maximize the suffering.
Dr. George Velmahos, head of trauma care at Massachusetts General Hospital, said his team found metal pellets and nails inside patients' bodies.
"They are numerous. There are people who have 10, 20, 30, 40 of them in their body, or more," Velmahos said.
While most of the patients treated at Brigham and Women's Hospital were wounded by "ordinary debris," three were struck by "perfectly round objects" that were uniform, consistent and metallic, the hospital's chairman of emergency medicine said.
'Human spirit' still alive
Dr. Ron Walls also said one patient had more than 12 carpenter-type nails.
"There is no question some of these objects were implanted in the device for the purpose of being exploded forward," he said.
The process of healing is already well under way. Boston Medical Center has two patients in critical condition, down from 11 just after the bombings, Dr. Peter Burke, chief of trauma care, told reporters Wednesday. Ten patients are in serious condition and seven are in fair condition, he said.
A traumatic road ahead
Candace Rispoli was cheering on a friend when the festive atmosphere turned into a "terrifying hell."
"One of my best friends ... was actually trampled and thrown to the blood-splattered ground when it first happened," Rispoli told CNN's iReport. "She was able to get up and keep running, but when I turned around to seek all my friends, I could not see her and panicked."
Rispoli, who suffered minor injuries, said the attack has changed her life.
"I personally will never participate in an event of this nature in a city in fear that something like this could happen again," she said. "I keep replaying the moments of terror over and over in my head and am just still in utter shock. Always seeing terrible things of this nature happen all over the world on TV, my heart would always go out to those directly affected. But I never imagined in a million years I would be a spectator at the Boston Marathon running for my life."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/17/us/boston-blasts/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
The breakthrough came from analysis of video from a department store near the site of the second explosion. Video from a Boston television station also contributed to the progress, said the source, who declined to be more specific but called it a significant development.
Earlier, a federal law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation told CNN that a lid to a pressure cooker thought to have been used in the bombings had been found on a roof of a building near the scene.
"If your experience and your expertise is Middle East terrorism, it has the hallmarks of al Qaeda or a Middle East group," former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes said. "If your experience is domestic groups and bombings that have occurred here, it has the hallmarks of a domestic terrorist like Eric Rudolph in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics bombings."
Things we know
Fuentes said he has investigated both types of terrorism -- from Iraq to the United States -- and finds the Boston attack has elements of both. "It has the hallmarks of both domestic and international (attacks), and you can see either side of that."
The bombs
The bombs, which exploded 12 seconds apart, killed three people and wounded 183.
One was housed in a pressure cooker hidden inside a backpack, the FBI said in a joint intelligence bulletin. The device also had fragments that may have included nails, BBs and ball bearings, the agency said.
The second bomb was also housed in a metal container, but it was not clear whether it too was in a pressure cooker, the FBI said.
The U.S. government has warned federal agencies in the past that terrorists could turn pressure cookers into bombs by packing them with explosives and shrapnel and detonating them with blasting caps.
Photos obtained by CNN show the remains of a pressure cooker found at the scene, along with a shredded black backpack and what appear to be metal pellets or ball bearings.
Scraps of at least one pressure cooker, nails and nylon bags found at the scene were sent to the FBI's national laboratory in Virginia, where technicians will try to reconstruct the devices, the agent leading the investigation said Tuesday.
The pieces suggest each of the devices was 6 liters (about 1.6 gallons) in volume, a Boston law enforcement source said. The recovered parts include part of a circuit board, which might have been used to detonate a device.
A law enforcement official said Monday's bombs were probably detonated by timers. But the FBI said details of the detonating system were unknown.
The attack has left Boston police with "the most complex crime scene that we've dealt with in the history of our department," Commissioner Ed Davis said Tuesday.
Authorities are sifting through more than 2,000 tips and a mass of digital photos and video clips, but are asking for the public's help in providing additional leads and images.
"Someone knows who did this," said Rick DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office. "Cooperation from the community will play a crucial role in this investigation."
DesLauriers asked the public to report anyone who may have talked about targeting the marathon or shown interest in explosives. He urged anyone who may have heard explosions in remote areas -- possibly indicating a bomb test -- or seen someone carrying "an unusually heavy, dark-colored bag" around the time of the attack to come forward.
Who may have wanted to cause mass destruction -- and whether the individual or individuals acted alone or as part of a group -- remained a mystery.
"We really don't know if it's a foreign or domestic threat," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "We don't know whether this was a homegrown terrorist or part of a wider conspiracy."
A "lone wolf" attacker could be particularly difficult to identify.
"This is what you worry about the most," a source with knowledge of the investigation said. "No trail, no intelligence."
"Boston is not going to be intimidated by this," said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, in testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. "But we are going to find out who did this. The police work being done is extraordinary. The FBI is remarkable. There is a great deal of forensic evidence. We are hopeful we can bring people to justice."
Clues from inside the hospital
Medical personnel treating the wounded found evidence suggesting the bombmaker or bombmakers sought to maximize the suffering.
Dr. George Velmahos, head of trauma care at Massachusetts General Hospital, said his team found metal pellets and nails inside patients' bodies.
"They are numerous. There are people who have 10, 20, 30, 40 of them in their body, or more," Velmahos said.
While most of the patients treated at Brigham and Women's Hospital were wounded by "ordinary debris," three were struck by "perfectly round objects" that were uniform, consistent and metallic, the hospital's chairman of emergency medicine said.
'Human spirit' still alive
Dr. Ron Walls also said one patient had more than 12 carpenter-type nails.
"There is no question some of these objects were implanted in the device for the purpose of being exploded forward," he said.
The process of healing is already well under way. Boston Medical Center has two patients in critical condition, down from 11 just after the bombings, Dr. Peter Burke, chief of trauma care, told reporters Wednesday. Ten patients are in serious condition and seven are in fair condition, he said.
A traumatic road ahead
Candace Rispoli was cheering on a friend when the festive atmosphere turned into a "terrifying hell."
"One of my best friends ... was actually trampled and thrown to the blood-splattered ground when it first happened," Rispoli told CNN's iReport. "She was able to get up and keep running, but when I turned around to seek all my friends, I could not see her and panicked."
Rispoli, who suffered minor injuries, said the attack has changed her life.
"I personally will never participate in an event of this nature in a city in fear that something like this could happen again," she said. "I keep replaying the moments of terror over and over in my head and am just still in utter shock. Always seeing terrible things of this nature happen all over the world on TV, my heart would always go out to those directly affected. But I never imagined in a million years I would be a spectator at the Boston Marathon running for my life."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/17/us/boston-blasts/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
I haven't been watching all the news, but I did see where they said there had been no arrest.
If there's a bomb threat at the court house, why are they dispersing the crowd?
I totally agree that the media has to be held accountable for the things they are broadcasting, not to mention all the extra dramatization? The incident is dramatic enough without the media putting extra spin on it.. It is totally disgusting.
If there's a bomb threat at the court house, why are they dispersing the crowd?
I totally agree that the media has to be held accountable for the things they are broadcasting, not to mention all the extra dramatization? The incident is dramatic enough without the media putting extra spin on it.. It is totally disgusting.
hmmm. Now they are saying there is a report of a threat of a bomb at the fed courthouse in Boston, which is the reason or the crowd and police in full gear.
I got home from work and heard on cnn that an arrest had been made. They were showing photos with this guy in a sweatshirt at the scene and all and then they got a message that no arrest had been made, nor had anyone been ideed. Really! Now they have a bunch of government suvs and spectators at the court house with people running around in combat gear, I imagine to break up the crowd! So when does someone hold the media accountable for all this false reporting in order to be the first one to tell the tale? Disgusting.
What in the world is so difficult about getting the truth out there? You know, if you are in the media and you are spreading false information, especially in cases like this, should themselves be fined at the least and jailed.....
Something has to stop this. Personal or corporate integrity ain't getting in done.... I mean, isn't there some kind of oath you take in reporting the "news"? Maybe I've bumped my head....
Something has to stop this. Personal or corporate integrity ain't getting in done.... I mean, isn't there some kind of oath you take in reporting the "news"? Maybe I've bumped my head....
It figures. This news stuff is such big business that no one seems to take the time to be circumspect. Now that is a shame.
Now CNN is saying no arrests made....
Yup, I don't have a problem with the amount of cameras around these days.
How wonderful is it that they already have a suspect in custody? I think that is remarkable!!!
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I agree. Thank goodness after all, for all those cameras, eh?
I am glad I took a break too. You can only weep so much and then start getting disgusted with the media for feeding those emotions 24/7.
I don't think it is so strange to want to know who this is. I think we as humans almost have a need to put a face on things.
I'm frustrated with all of the speculation that was going on the last couple of days and found it necessary to not listen to the news yesterday. Glad I took that break....
How wonderful is it that they already have a suspect in custody? I think that is remarkable!!!
I'm frustrated with all of the speculation that was going on the last couple of days and found it necessary to not listen to the news yesterday. Glad I took that break....
How wonderful is it that they already have a suspect in custody? I think that is remarkable!!!
Arrest made, breifing at 5pm, but sure the name will leak out before that.
Of course, we want to know who it is.
This is evil personified.
This is evil personified.
Dying to know who it is, though it is strange to me that it matters.
Terror is terror, by any hand.
Terror is terror, by any hand.
Now CNN is saying that an arrest has been made.
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