Boston Victim Who Lost Both Legs Helped FBI Find Suspects
"He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, 'bag, saw the guy, looked right at me.'"
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PHOTO - SUSPECT HAS BEEN CAPTURED ALIVE
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Bloomberg
Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him.
Just before 3 p.m. on April 15, Bauman was waiting among the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. A man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet, his brother, Chris Bauman, said in an interview.
Two and a half minutes later, the bag exploded, tearing Jeff’s legs apart. A picture of him in a wheelchair, bloodied and ashen, was broadcast around the world as he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. He lost both legs below the knee.
“He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview.
On April 15, Remy Lawler, 25, was standing with Bauman, said her father, Arthur Lawler, of Amesbury. Shortly before the explosion, Remy, who’s the roommate of Jeff’s girlfriend, Erin Hurley, moved closer to the finish line, away from Bauman and another friend, to take better photographs.
She suffered a baseball-sized shrapnel wound.
Shortly after, Lawler called her mother’s cell phone and left a message in which she cried “Mom! Mom!” Medics could be heard telling her, “You’re going to be all right,” her father said.
“She feels guilty about a lot of this -- that she wasn’t with her friends,” Arthur Lawler said.
It would take hours before the Bauman family knew what had happened to Jeff. They learned about it the way much of the world did: the grisly image on television of their son being wheeled from the scene, his lower legs destroyed.
Must Watch
Boston Victim Looked Into Eyes of Bomber
April 19 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Asjylyn Loder reports on victim Jeff Bauman Jr., who looked into the eyes of the bomber minutes before he placed the device.
Photo of the bag dropped at the feet of Jeff Bauman.
First responders including Carlos Arredondo, in cowboy hat, tend to Jeff Bauman, who was severely wounded after two explosions occurred along the final stretch of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street in Boston on April 15, 2013.
Kelvin Ma/Bloomberg
GRAPHIC VIDEO: Moments After Boston Bomb Exploded
Apr 19, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Reader Comments (58)
Pitch
I can answer that part. It's his long hair. When your hat flies off, your hair immediately falls in your face covering your eyes if you are looking down at all. You can't function if you can't see, and so he grabs his hat.
Occam's Razor. That's probably it.
Cheyenne, by the same line of thinking, if you're going to bother blowing people up, why not just blow their legs off with the bomb rather than faking it (while simultaneously blowing people up)?
Here are two really good links that provide long-range coverage (~1/2 mile?) of the blast site. The first has some maps that really help contextualize the closer-range shots (the vast majority of shots available online)...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2310596/Boston-bombings-latest-FBI-use-phone-records-identify-suspect.html
The second link includes photos taken by an ultra high-res camera from an office looking up Boylston Avenue. The resolution of these shots is just breathtaking...
http://cryptome.org/2013-info/04/boston-bombs-02/boston-bombs-02.htm
DB, I wonder if your friend is in any of these?
Lawsuits. The list of plaintiffs' names on Suffolk County's docket should be interesting.
DB, it appears a post I left a few minutes ago with a couple of really good links in it got trapped in your spam filter (which apparently operates on a time release, so ultimately it'll show up).
Bostonhook - Debunking the Hoaxers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3zkgF19AyQ
Exactly how I feel about the Jeff Bauman - Nick Vogt conspiracy meme.
Snopes shows the error here.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/conspiracy/boston.asp#vogt
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
Great read from the NYT