That might even upset Obama and the liberals.
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Explosions kill at least 2 at Boston Marathon; dozens injured
By Vernon Loeb and William Branigin, 4:55 PM
BOSTON — Two explosions disrupted the Boston Marathon on Monday, causing at least two deaths and dozens of injuries and scattering crowds near the finish line, authorities said.
The blasts occurred after the top racers had completed the course, but thousands of others were still running. CNN reported that authorities halted the race.
Video footage showed an explosion off to the side of the street as runners were nearing the finish line, with a couple of runners toppling over from the concussion. Smoke rise from a sidewalk and people ran away. Photos of the scene afterward showed a sidewalk slicked with blood.
Boston police said two people were killed in the blasts. The Boston Globe reported that at least 64 people were injured.
Later, police confirmed that another explosion took place at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, and there were media reports that an undetonated device was found under a grandstand at the marathon.
According to the Globe, 19 injured people were initially transported to nearby Massachusetts General Hospital, six of them in critical condition.
Boston Marathon officials described the blasts near the finish line as originating from "two bombs."
Police subsequently cleared the sidewalk on Huntington Street, saying there was a live bomb inside the Prudential Center.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick urged people to "stay out of crowds" as they made their way home.
A bomb squad used what were described as controlled explosions to detonate two other devices, the Associated Press reported.
A CNN producer who was at the race said the first large explosion was followed about 10 seconds later by another blast. He said he saw at least five or six people who appeared to be injured.
Emergency personnel rushed to the area, and the street was quickly sealed off.
The explosions occurred shortly before 3 p.m. Eastern time near the intersection of Boylston and Exeter streets. Local media reports said store fronts were blown out.
The Boston Fire Department, fearing secondary blasts, ordered all equipment off Boylston Street. A Boston firefighter tweeted that there were fears of "another possible device" at the city's Mandarin Hotel, but this could not immediately be confirmed.
Nor was it immediately known what caused the blasts near the finish line.
According to the CNN producer, the blasts occurred on opposite sides of the street. He said the first "looked like it was off to the side of the street" and the second "looked like it happened on the sidewalk." There were indications that one of the blasts may have come from a trash container, he said.
The witness said he saw at least four injured people being treated at the scene.
Many of the injured appeared to be spectators who were watching the race.
About half of the nearly 27,000 participants had reportedly finished the race when the blasts occurred. The racers came from at least 56 countries and territories.
"I saw two explosions," reported Boston Herald journalist Chris Cassidy, who was running in the marathon. "The first one was beyond the finish line. I heard a loud bang and I saw smoke rising." The blast " looked like it was in a trash can or something," he said. "There are at least a dozen that seem to be injured in some way."
Police established a crime scene around the Prudential Center, which is near the finish line. The blast apparently occurred about 300 yards from the finish line.
Authorities in New York and Washington tightened security precautions in the wake of the blasts.
In Washington, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) acknowledged the early reports of explosions before speaking on the Senate floor about pending gun legislation.
"It appears tragedy has struck at the Boston Marathon," he said. "And bombs have gone off and there are injuries we know of, the severity of which we do not yet know. We hope and pray that there are no fatalities."
President Obama was notified of the incident, and the administration is in contact with state and local authorities, a White House official said. Obama directed his administration to provide whatever assistance is necessary in the investigation and response, the official said.
Shortly after being notified around 3 p.m., Obama received a briefing from homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and other members of his senior White House staff in the Oval Office. The president called Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to express his concern for those who were injured and to make clear that his administration is ready to provide support.
Pam Howze, 39, of Arlington, Va., had just finished the marathon at the time of the explosions.
"We didn't see anything," she said. "We were walking away and all we heard were two booms.... We just left the area."
Paul Cummings, a 44-year-old runner from Portland, Oregon, was in the medical tent near the finish line getting a leg massage when the blasts occurred.
"It didn't sound like a water main blowing or anything else — it sounded like a bomb," Cummings said. "Maybe I watch too much TV or something, but as soon as I heard it, I knew it was a bomb. It was just a loud explosion, and then another. You can't hear a noise like that and think anything good happened."
As police started bringing wounded people into the tent, Cummings quickly got up and left. "I just thought, 'I'm out of here.' "
He stepped out into Copley Square to wailing sirens, people shouting and crying and police imploring the crowds to leave the area.
Cummings tried for 20 minutes to reach a friend who had been in the grandstand, but phone service was jammed. With great relief, he connected with his friend and started getting a flood of e-mails and calls himself from friends and family trying to check on his well-being. He wandered into a hotel behind the Prudential Center to find a television broadcast, but all non-guests were ordered out of the hotel. "It seemed like they were on a kind of lockdown," Cummings said.
It was the first time Cummings had run the storied Boston Marathon. "I'm pretty sure my wife is going to make sure this is my last time," he said.
Jay Hartford, 46, a nurse at Boston Children's Hospital, was about 800 yards from the finish when he heard the explosions. He thought they were electrical and kept running. Then he saw smoke billowing across Boylston Street. Runners started to panic, he said.
"Some people hit the ground, in shock," he said. "A woman [runner] was on her knees screaming" in fear, not injury, not injury.
Police along the route started pushing barriers across Boylston, to keep runners from approaching the finish line, he said.
"Stop, turn back!" the police shouted to oncoming runners, Hartford said.
Hartford called wife and four boys, whom he had just seen along the route, and told them to go straight home.
Hartford became choked up at the enormity of this calamity befalling one of Boston's most beloved traditions.
"It was going to be my best marathon, but I feel I've got to get to work" at the hospital, Hartford said.
Boston.com sports producer Steve Silva also was near the finish line when the explosions occurred.
"I was ... shooting finish-line scenes, and then bang, it just went off, and then less than 15 to 20 seconds after, there was a second explosion, closer to Fairfield street," Silva said.
"It was just immediately [evident] there were injuries, right in the middle of the spectator crowds. There was blood everywhere, there were victims being carried out on stretchers. I saw someone lose their leg. People are crying. People are confused."
John Hampson, 19, a photographer for the Tufts University student newspaper, said he was taking pictures of runners crossing the line when he was shaken by the first blast, a massive boom 30 feet away.
"It was a very loud concussive bang. It shook the whole avenue," he said.
"People started running and yelling, "Run! Run!" said a Chicago nurse, Cindy Bosh, 45, who had just finished the race.
Medical workers from a nearby medical tent dashed to help the victims, the eyewitnesses said. Volunteers jumped over tables piled with Gatorade bottles to attend to the wounded.
Hampson said race officials yelled at the bystanders to flee, saying there was a third bomb that had not exploded.
"There was a huge cloud of smoke, like a giant ball" when the bombs went off, he said.
One explosive seemed to go off in a building and another in a crowd of onlookers about six people deep, he said.
"It was horrifying. I felt it, and I saw the cloud... It was awful. Then people were coming by on stretchers," he said.
Branigin reported from Washington. Lyndsey Layton, David Montgomery, Philip Rucker, Jule Tate and Amy Gardner contributed to this report.
© The Washington Post Company
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