Wired’s Exclusive Inside Story of the Boston Bomb Squad’s Defining Day
Can’t recommend this story enough to anyone who cares about how we deal with terror attacks. WIRED scores big again.
It happened at 2:50 pm. Connolly didn’t see the first explosion; he felt it. By the time his brain registered what it was, he felt another. The Boston Public Library and a mass of exhausted runners blocked his view. But slowly a cloud of smoke began to rise above the rooflines.
Connolly pushed his way through the dazed crowd, running toward the finish line. He saw nothing but confusion and pain. It smelled like burning hair. An acrid haze hung like smog. People were sprawled everywhere on the pavement, some with limbs at impossible angles. His mind raced. A bomb? Two? Smaller than a car bomb, for sure. But still stout, maybe 10 pounds, and easy to hide. Panicked runners were fleeing past him. Several people were trying furiously to make calls on their cell phones. To initiate another device? How many more bombs were there? Was this going to be another Madrid? Mumbai?
Connolly surveyed the scene for lone packages and backpacks—anything that could hide another similar device.
He saw bags everywhere.
With no other options, he pulled out his knife, grabbed a bag, and cut into it.
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