The FBI said there has been ‘substantial progress’ in the Boston bombing investigation after they analyzed surveillance footage from a nearby department store which showed a ‘dark-skinned man in a backwards baseball cap’ planting the second bomb.
Because of that video – and local news footage – authorities were able to get exactly what they have been looking for – an individual coming in and dropping a package in a black bag before quickly walking away again.
It was initially believed the man had been arrested and would soon be taken to court but White House officials later denied that anyone had been take into custody or even positively identified.
CNN – who broke the arrest news – later backtracked and said it had been a misunderstanding and no arrest had been made.
However, the Associated Press stood by their reports that someone was taken into custody, even after it was widely disputed.
According to the LA Times, two suspects have been singled out in surveillance videos of the scene. A federal official said he has been briefed that authorities believe a second video or photo showed ‘two men with two backpacks’. More pictures after the cut……
Though CNN’s John King said sources told him it was a ‘dark-skinned man’, CBS reported that it was a white man who was wearing a black jacket, a gray hooded sweatshirt and a white or off-white baseball cap backwards. He is said to be six feet or 6-feet-2-inches tall with a medium build.
It is not clear whether they have a name to go with the face.
Soon after this was reported, a bomb threat was called into the federal courthouse and the building – as well as the surrounding area – was evacuated.
Amateur pictures taken by someone in a nearby office building may show the man responsible running away from the scene – though this is only speculation.
‘I went to the window and I was looking in the direction of the finish line. I saw simultaneously a runner go down, a huge explosion, and then a deafening roar,’ Benjamin Thorndike said. ‘I had my camera in my hand, and I just pushed the rapid-shutter button down and just took 25 pictures over the course of what felt like a long time, but I think it was only 15 or 20 seconds.’
He added that he thought it was strange that the man was running away from the scene while everyone else was instinctively crouched down and taking cover.
It also emerged today that the force of the first blast at the marathon was so strong, the lid of the pressure cooker bomb was found on the sixth-floor roof of a hotel 35 yards away from the explosion site and is now a vital clue in the investigation.
A guest at the Charlesmark Hotel discovered the crucial piece of evidence just minutes after the blast. He picked up the twisted metal – believing it was a hubcap from a vehicle damaged in the bomb – and gave it to a policeman.
Twenty-four hours later he was quizzed by FBI agents, who revealed the mangled metal was one of biggest clues so far in the search for the terrorists who killed three and injured 183 others.
Hotel owner Mark Hagopian said: ‘One of the guests had been up on the roof earlier in the day. Immediately after the blast he went back up there and spotted what he thought was a hub cap.
‘As it hadn’t been there earlier he thought it could have come from a damaged car, so he picked it up and took it downstairs.
‘He handed it to a policeman and thought nothing more of it until the FBI contacted him and hotel manager Curt Butcher on Tuesday evening.
‘They met for 35 minutes and the FBI confirmed that it was part of the pressure cooker bomb.’
Hogopian, 50, was hosting a marathon party for 100 people when the first bomb exploded on Monday afternoon.
As guests rushed outside the see what was happening, the second bomb went off just yards from the hotel’s outdoor patio.
‘We were knocked off our feet by the blast and all around us there were bodies – seven or eight people missing limbs’ he said.
‘There was blood splayed everywhere. It was utter chaos.
‘One of the fourth-floor guests went up to the roof to see if he could see what was happening. That’s when he found what he thought was the hubcap.
‘He handed it to the cop as everyone was being evacuated – at the time it was feared there were more bombs set to go off.
‘Now it turns out that piece of metal is a big piece of the evidence. Apparently, forensics should be able to get many more clues from that.
‘The FBI also took away video and photos the guest had taken. They are scouring those for further evidence.’
Daily Mail.
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