Three are dead and more than 170 injured in the Boston Marathon bombings that occurred late Monday afternoon.
Shortly before 3 p.m., the first marathoners crossed the finish line on Boylston Street in Copley Square. Two explosions quickly occurred within seconds of each other.
Another bomb threat occurred on Wednesday, April 17, at the Federal Courthouse in Boston. Everyone was evacuated before police announced that all was clear.
The perpetrator has not yet been identified.
“You feel horrible for the families, for those people that lost their loved ones and for the people who were hurt,” Sean Prather, LPC Campus Safety Supervisor, said. “People automatically will think foreign terrorist, but we’ve had acts of domestic terrorists like the Oklahoma City bombers where 168 people were killed. That was a terrorist right here, a citizen.”
Both federal officials and national television are describing the bombings that sent the city into chaos as “obvious acts of terrorism.” At the time of this writing, it has not been confirmed whether the bombings are domestic or foreign acts of terror, though officials are leaning toward domestic terrorism as the culprit.
“There are a lot of things that are surrounding this that would give an indication it may have been a domestic terrorist,” Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters.
President Obama stressed in a public statement issued to the citizens of the U.S. shortly after the attack that people should not jump to conclusions about the culprit, however.
“We still do not know who did this or why, and people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts,” President Obama said. “But make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who did this. We will find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups, will feel the full weight of justice. “
The Livermore Patch reports that four of the runners were Livermore residents: Mark Goralka, Jaclyn Hepler, David Ly and Randy Simpson. It is uncertain whether the runners were present at the time of the explosions; both Hepler and Ly are confirmed to be safe.
“One of my friends was saying that his brother was running in the marathon and he had run 30 minutes ahead of when the bomb went off,” Eric Bolin, ASLPC senator running for vice president in the current ASLPC elections, said. “He almost died in that accident. It’s a crazy tragedy and all we can do is pray for those who went through that.”
For those who remember the 9/11 attacks, the Boston Marathon explosions are another tragedy to add to the list of devastation that has occurred in the past decade. For the younger generation, it’s something completely different.
“I’m a nanny to two boys, 10 and 13 — I didn’t realize the age gap or the generational gap between us until the one came home terrified because there were two bombs going off in Boston,” Cherry Bogue, ASLPC president running for Student Trustee in the current ASLPC elections, said. “I didn’t realize they were so young when 9/11 happened. They don’t even remember it.”
