Boston Marathon Bombing

Cassandra Carter

Boston Marathon Bombing

Southern New Hampshire University

Boston Marathon Bombing

        Boston marathon bombing became a United States traumatic historical event. An event that many people will always remember especially those involved and those who lost family and friends. Boston’s marathon stands as the world’s oldest annual marathon. On April 15, 2013 Boston Massachusetts, held the 117th annual marathon event. Unfortunately, a bombing occurred causing 3 deaths and nearly 264 injured. The suspects identified as brothers were Tamerian Tsarnaev (26), and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (19). Many agencies and departments came together to help victims as well as hunt for the suspects.

        Which agency was the lead and why? The Boston Marathon bombing had many different governmental agencies that were involved in the hunt to find out who carried out the lethal attack and why. Even though many departments and agencies were involved with the Boston Marathon bombing was there a jurisdiction issue causing another department to take over. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took charge of the Boston Marathon Bombing Investigation. The FBI was determined in figuring out how the Boston Marathon bombing carried out. The reason why the FBI took charge is that “the FBI was declaring federal jurisdiction over the matter through the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force” (Mullen, 2013). Yes, a jurisdiction issue was involved because the bombing was a potential terrorist investigation as well as a criminal investigation.

        Were any political figures involved in the Boston Marathon bombing? Two political figures were involved with the Boston Marathon bombing which was Thomas Menino (Mayor of Boston) and Deval Patrick (Governor of Massachusetts). The Boston Marathon event is one of Thomas Menino’s favorite days of the year.  For nearly two decades, Thomas Menino usually sat in the front row of the grand stands. Unfortunately, in 2013 during the Boston Marathon Thomas Menino had to watch the event on television because he was in the hospital recovering from an operation. Thomas Menino’s security team notified him of the bombing. Menino then took control of the situation and commanded his staff to stay calm and to make sure the public knew that the mayor was in charge and would keep them informed. Thomas Menino took a leadership role and despite of the doctor’s order to stay in the hospital he left to help his state get through this traumatic event as well as hunt for the suspects since they were still on the lose (King, 2014).

        Deval Patrick the Governor of Massachusetts was also involved with the community during the Boston Marathon bombing. Governor Patrick spoke at the press release advising the community the status of the bombing. Governor Patrick established a statewide (Boston) lockdown while they continued to hunt for the suspects.  Governor Patrick’s involvement with the Boston Marathon bombing was brief, just enough to issue people around Boston to stay in their homes while authorities hunted for the suspects and to update the community on the progress.