Heather Abbott - Witness for the Defense: UPDATE

in the case USA vs. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 

 

Extra TV

Heather Abbott is one of the most prominent survivors of the Boston bombings. I have already featured two of her early statements in April 2013 as confirmation that the second bomb exploded on the patio of the Forum restaurant. Meanwhile, she has repeated that she was catapulted through the entrance door on several occasions during the anniversary and the Marathon in April 2014.

Among the eyewitnesses for the second bomb site she has an outstanding position for several reasons. First, the frequent and consistent repetition of her story to various media gives it weight und authenticity, in the sense that mistakable or flatly wrong quotes and interpretations can be excluded. Second, as I have outlined in my April 2013 blog entry and will elaborate now, she's definitely a witness for the defense, not for the prosecution, which promises an interesting trial. Third, her account is confirmed by people inside the Forum, thus multiplicating the potential witnesses for the defense. Fourth - and last not least - she's a prominent face of "Boston Strong", and with her open smile she has already won the hearts and minds of people in Boston and elsewhere, giving her immunity against any cheap attempts to discredit her.

In the appendix, there is a commented list of her statements. For our purposes (to show that she's a precious witness for the defense) it is sufficient to know that she was standing outside, waiting as the last one in a line to get into the Forum and that she was, in her own words, catapulted through the open door together with some other people. She landed on the ground of the Forum interior.

In order to narrow down where she was prior to the blast it is important to note that only the right leaf of the entrance door was open; the left one was closed. Because a few people (2, 3, 4, 5?) were waiting in front of her to get inside she must have been a few feet away from the doorway. She was definitely not on the sitting area of the patio which was filled with chairs and tables. She also was not near the planter (the border to Atlantic Fish) because this would have blown her through the open doorway in a skew angle. In this case the wall of the vestibule would have terminated her and her fellows' flights, and they would have been piled up right in the doorway, which is not supported by any statements or photographic evidence. In other words, the line of the waiting queue must have been perpendicular to the open door, and the people were catapulted inside along a perpendicular or almost perpendicular angle to it.

This results in the following diagram. With a very high probability, Heather Abbott was in the checkered area immediately before the blast.

The bomb exploded right behind her, and eyewitness statements and photographic evidence leave no doubt that it exploded on the patio, not on the sidewalk. So the area where the explosive blackpack was placed can be narrowed down quite well (checkered):

According to the criminal complaint, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dropped his bag at the metal barriers. This is so far away from the contemplable epicenter of the bomb that it makes Heather Abbott a key witness for the defense.

Appendix: Heather Abbott's statements

Washington Post, April 23, 2013

Abbott saw smoke swirling and people rushing into the bar — but she didn’t make it inside. The second bomb exploded, and a piece of shrapnel hit her foot. “Who would help me now?” she remembers thinking. But a woman came to Abbott’s aid, dragging her inside the bar.

This remarkable article is the only one which says that Abbott was not thrown through the door. But as we will see, it contradicts every other statement she has made since. Additionally, the story of the woman who "dragged her inside the bar" doesn't appear anywhere else, neither do the "people rushing into the bar". Apparently these remarks are factually wrong dramatizations. The Washington Post itself published a new article on her recovery two weeks later, correcting the earlier story, and this time she is quoted directly, not indirectly as above:


Washington Post, May 11, 2013

Abbott said she was in line to get into Forum, a bar near the finish line, when the second of two bombs went off. “I heard it go off, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground inside of Forum,” she said. “It blew me in. And my foot was on fire. And I was afraid to look at it.”

It is an interesting question how the author of the first article, Suzy Khimm, may have arrived at her erroneous reporting. The speculation ought to be allowed that it was part of what I call the "mailbox spin", i.e. the attempts to make reports of the second blast and its aftermath compatible to the claim that the bomb exploded near the mailbox (the place where Tsarnaev presumably left his bag). This phenomenon can also be observed at many other big news outlets: CNN, New York Times, and more - and at one time, they will hopefully be held accountable for these misreportings.


Associated Press, April 23, 2013

Abbott was scrambling to get off the sidewalk when the force of a second blast blew her through the restaurant doorway. After she'd regained her senses, she tried to stand, but her left foot felt "as if it were on fire." Unable to find her friends in the smoke and confusion, she called out to the panicked crowd.


Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2013

She was injured by the second bomb, which went off in front of the Forum restaurant on Boylston Street. She was waiting in line with friends to get into the bar after taking in a Red Sox game, which is a Patriot's Day tradition for the Newport, R.I., resident. She and her friends had come up by train from Providence. After hearing the first, nearby explosion, Ms. Abbott immediately thought it was a terrorist attack—something she said leaves her leery of returning to the marathon or other crowded venues again. The next bomb went off quickly. Ms. Abbott, last in line among her friends, was on the floor as people scrambled to the back of the bar.


SBWire, April 30, 2013 (detailed report from Heather herself)

When we got there, we were standing in line outside waiting to get in - the bouncer was checking people’s IDs and I was the last of the three of us in line. As we were standing there a loud noise went off and I remember turning around and looking and seeing smoke and seeing people screaming and it immediately reminded me of 9-11, something I had seen on tv. It just all happened so quickly that when I turned around, the second blast had already happened and it blew a bunch of us into the bar. I suppose it hit me because I was the last one. I was on the ground. Everybody was running to the back of the bar to the exit. I felt like my foot was on fire. I knew I couldn’t stand up.

Note that the second blast "blew a bunch of us into the bar" - i.e. not only Heather Abbott, but also the people in front of her.


WHDH, August 15, 2013 (re-opening of the Forum)

“Shortly after I got catapulted into the restaurant, kind of coming to on the ground,” said Abbott. “It was a little bit of a strange feeling coming in for the first time. I’m here with the people I came with the first time and the people who rescued me and I’m looking forward to leaving with a much different memory."


In the week between the anniversary and the 2014 Marathon, Abbott gave several interviews, sometimes together with Matt and Erin Chatham. The couple was at a charity event of the Joe Andruzzi foundation on the second floor of the Forum, rushed down after the blast and spotted her when she was lying helplessly on the ground. They carried her outside and stayed with her for the next minutes. Their statement proves Suzy Khimm's report about Abbott being "dragged inside" definitely wrong.

The title photo shows Maria Menounos (interviewer), Heather Abbott, Matt Chatham and Erin Chatham.


Women's Health, April 18, 2014

Heather had been about to walk into the Forum when she heard the first bomb go off. “I turned in the direction of it and saw smoke and people kind of frantic,” says Heather. “Just seconds later, the second bomb exploded right next to me.” Since it was a spring day, the restaurant had its doors open—and the force of the bomb catapulted Heather inside the restaurant.

“When I came to on the ground, I realized my foot felt like it was on fire,” she says. “I was in a lot of pain, and people were running away in the direction of the street through the back entrance of the restaurant.”

When Heather tried to get up, she couldn’t—so she yelled for help. Erin Chatham, wife of former Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham, heard Heather’s pleas and got her husband to carry Heather out of the restaurant, where she was taken to the hospital.


Extra TV, April 15, 2014

The two also remembered the moment that brought them together. Abbott had just come from the Red Sox games and was about to walk into the Forum restaurant when the first explosion occurred. “It happened so quickly, before I could even say anything, I heard the second explosion right next to me. The force from it actually pushed me inside of the restaurant and onto the ground.”

Matt and Erin were in the restaurant. Erin was the one who heard Heather pleading for help. Heather said, “I was really lucky she stopped to help me because people were literally running by me.”

Erin explained, “I spotted Heather trying to get up... and she was struggling to get up and that’s when I realized she had a bad injury.” Matt added, “My wife essentially talked me into scooping her up and heading out the back. It was my wife tugging and showing me Heather, who really needed special attention, that’s what brought us together.”


Tagesschau, April 21, 2014


"The next thing I knew I had been catapulted through the open door onto the ground of the restaurant by the force of the bomb."


WPRI, April 22, 2014

"I was struck by shrapnel and I was catapulted through the front door of the restaurant, and found myself on the ground there."




The list raises no claim to completeness.

The Boston Globe's failed "historic" Marathon finish line photo shooting

It was meant to be a big fiesta to celebrate "Boston Strong". One year after the Marathon bombings, the Boston Globe invited  “survivors, police, firefighters, EMTs, doctors, nurses, runners, political figures, store owners, the Boston Athletic Association, Red Sox and Bruins player” to be part of a "historic" photo shoot. The event took place in the morning of Sunday, April 6th, 2014.

The Globe writes: "Thousands of photographs had been snapped and there was no reason to stick around on the start of a glorious spring day. Yet there in the middle of Boylston Street, in the exact spot where there had been so much sadness and anguish almost a year ago to the day, now there were smiles, hugs and selfies. Nobody had to be there. They wanted to be there. Maybe even needed to be there."

This is, unfortunately, a flattering picture. One particular and prominent group is in large part missing on the photo: the hardest-hit survivors whose life has dramatically changed by the bombs. The Globe certainly invited them as the first. But alas, they didn't come.

Among the victims of the second bomb site the Richard Family, who has kept a low profile in the past, is a notable exception (David Yepez is another, less famous one). Here's a list of the prominent survivors who didn't want to come:

Heather Abbott

Roseann Sdoia

Adrianne Haslet-Davis

Jacqui Webb

Paul and J.P. Norden

Marc Fucarile

Aaron Hern with father Alan Hern

Also missing are the "heroes" of the second bomb site:

Matt Patterson

Tracy Monroe

Mike Chase and Dan Marshall

With so many Marathon Bombing "celebrities" missing - and the situation doesn't look better for the first bomb site -, one may contest the historic value of the picture. The fact that the photo shoot was attended by high-ranking officials like Carmen Ortiz, Thomas Menino, Ed Davis, and Martin Walsh doesn't change this diagnosis.

So why did the survivors, who were not that shy to speak with the media in the aftermath of the bombings, not come? This looks like a coordinated action, it almost resembles a boycott.

For the regular reader of this blog, one probable reason is obvious: it's the unsettled question where exactly the second bomb exploded - and the equivalent question whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was the bomber. Another reason might be the attendance of the Richard Family, who according to available photo and video evidence was not at the second bomb site. The official story has it that Matt Patterson, Mike Chase, and Tracy Monroe saved little Jane Richard's life. It would have been a wonderful opportunity to meet again, with many heart-melting pictures. But the lifesavers chose not to come.

The first 30 seconds after the second blast - a photo gallery

This is, one year after, the actual state of non-FBI photo evidence from the immediate aftermath of the second blast of the Boston Marathon Bombings, without comment, for documentary purposes. Most of these photos I have already posted within other contexts, they are compiled here to focus on the area of Boylston Street in front of the Forum. The times have been determined with the help of the Fred Land video and other sources. I've added the original URL and, if available, the photographer.

 

0.3-0.5 seconds after blast

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/kenw/files/201305/Nova Boston Bombers jpeg.jpeg

2 seconds after blast (David L. Ryan)

http://clikhear.palmbeachpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/a001.jpg

 

2,5 seconds after blast

http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1838547.ece/ALTERNATES/s2197/Bomb-explodes-in-the-crowd-1838547.jpg

2,5 seconds after blast (David Silverman)

 

7 seconds after blast (David Silverman)

 

 

 13 seconds after blast

http://i.imgur.com/Ot8xciz.png

     

19 seconds after blast (Kenshin Okubo)

 

19 seconds after blast (Bill Hoenk)

20 seconds after blast (David Green)

http://cryptome.org/2013-info/04/boston-bombs/pict91.jpg

 

30 seconds after blast

http://cryptome.org/2013-info/04/boston-bombs/pict90.jpg

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case: Witness for the Prosecution? - Update

Update  4/14/14: the little stairway in the background belongs to the building beside the Apple store.

Fred Langa/ Huffington Post

Jarrod Clowery in front of the Apple Store

Jarrod Clowery in front of Fidelity Investments

Jarrod Clowery is a potential key witness for the prosecution in the Tsarnaev trial because his various public accounts seem to confirm that the second bomb exploded near the metal barriers, not on the Forum's patio - which would indicate that Tsarnaev's bag was the bomb. I have analyzed his statements in a blog entry from August 2013 and mentioned the problems coming along with them.

In this article, I stated that the photo with Clowery sitting on the street, apparently injured and treated by two first aiders, was taken at the crossing Boylston Street/Ring Road. I based this conclusion on the zebra markings in the background which seemed to be the ones in front of the Forum.

After a closer scrutiny, I have to retract this discovery. The photo was not taken in front of Forum/Starbucks Coffee (755 Boylston Str.), but in front of the Apple Store (815 Boylston Str.). Several details in the background make this conclusion inevitable:

1 - there is no stop line marking parallel to the zebra markings
2 - there's a striking gap in the zebra markings (far left)
3 - there's no scrap from the explosion on the zebra markings
4 - the pole has a square socket

Apple Store 815 Boylston Street

Second Bomb Site 755 Boylston Street

(Image source: Google Street View)

All of these details fit the site at the Apple Store, but not the second bomb site. Additionally, the photo with Clowery standing upright is clearly taken in front of Fidelity Investments (801 Boylston Str.) right beneath the Apple store. You can see the italic "Fi..." writing in the window, and the patterns of the pavement and the walls match the location 1-1.

Jarrod Clowery has recently launched a charity, the "Heroes Hearts Foundation". On a speech at the founding assembly, he reiterated his story: he was blown onto the street by the second bomb, stood up in bewilderment, looked around for a couple of seconds, and was compelled to sit down by two off-duty policemen who cared for him afterwards. While it is theoretically possible that all of this happened at the Forum and the scene at the Apple Store occurred a bit later, like kind of a dejà vu, he never has mentioned the Apple Store episode.

Clowery himself has authenticated the first photo (using it on his Facebook page), and he will also not deny that he's the person standing in front of Fidelity Investments. The photographer of both pictures was Kenshin Okubo. Clowery wears a grey jacket - the Boston Red Sox Fashion Therma Base Premier Jacket: 

This jacket has some striking unique features:

-  a writing RED SOX on the front
-  red stripes at the elbows
-  a red stripe at the collar
-  a "red socks" logo on the left sleeve
-  a small logo on the back, below the collar

There is an individual identifiable on photos and videos of the second bomb site wearing the very same jacket, with torn pants and a striking similarity to Clowery. For convenience, I name this man "Red Sox Jacket". His actions can be reconstructed very well with the help of the footage:

7 seconds after blast: Red Sox Jacket runs away from the Forum, in the photo left (source: David Silverman)

24 seconds after blast: Red Sox Jacket enters the Fred Land video area near the Mandarin Hotel, in the lower left corner of the snapshot
27 seconds after blast: Red Sox Jacket leaves the video area

 
30 seconds after blast: Red Sox Jacket is on Boylston Street in front of the Mandarin Hotel looking back to the bomb site, in the photo right (source unknown)

In this diagram, the black stars represent the positions of Red Sox Jacket at the respective moments:

Either Jarrod Clowery is the man with the Red Sox jacket, then there are some irreconcilable discrepancies between the footage and his narrative; or it's a different person and only a remarkable coincidence, but in this case the question arises: where is Clowery on the footage of the aftermath of the second bomb? He must be somewhere.

The prosecutors have declared that they have thousands of photos and hundreds of witnesses for proving Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's guilt. In case they intend to summon Jarrod Clowery to the trial as a witness, he should be prepared for some uncomfortable questions from the defense team.

New Second Bomb Site Evidence: The Silverman Photos

Update 4/6/2014: better determination of the time of photo A added in the middle of the text.

Photo A

Photo B

David Silverman is a professional photographer. He was at the finish line on Marathon Day 2013, witnessed the two blasts and happened to shoot some photos of the second bomb site immediately after the explosion. Two of them he posted on his website on April 17th, 2013. They are most interesting and the subject of this blog entry. Considering their significance for the Tsarnaev case, it is astonishing that they have been overlooked for nearly a year. The credits for uncovering them go to "justfacts" from the letsrollforum website where I picked them up.

The first step is to determine the time when they were generated. It is immediately apparent that both photos must have been shot within seconds after the second bomb exploded. By matching them with already published photos and videos it is possible to pinpoint the time very exactly.

Here's the photo which was the earliest one after the blast up to now. I've already posted it in previous blog entries. Let's name it photo C.

By matching it with the Fred Land video (taking the running policeman on the left side as reference), I determined its time stamp as 13 +-1 seconds after the blast. I marked four individuals through colored squares:

-  black: a man with a black jacket and a black backpack. This man appears in many aftermath photos which I've gathered here. Many believe he is Bill Richard, the father of the killed boy Martin Richard, but this is very unlikely.

-  blue: a man in a blue jacket with dark pants running away from the Forum.

-  white: a bald man wearing a white shirt.

-  red:  a woman with a green short-sleeved shirt and dark pants.

All of these persons appear also in photo A, and it is clear that photo A precedes photo C: the man in black has moved from the middle of the street (photo A) to the curb (photo C), and the man in blue starts running from the mailbox (photo A) across the street (photo C). The man in white, who is lying beside the mailbox (photo A), is standing upright in photo C.

Taking the time that the man in blue needed to cross the street as reference, the time difference between A and C must be at least 3 seconds, which means that photo A must have been shot within the first ten seconds after the blast.

Update: just right of the man in black, there is a man with a blue jacket and a white cap jumping over the barrier. This man can be spotted in the Fred Land video at 1:07, i.e. the photo ist shot 7 seconds after the blast:

The time stamp of photo B can be determined very precisely with the help of this photo (David L. Ryan) and this video of the second explosion. Here's an enlarged cut-out from the photo:

The female runner within the light-green square and "Mr. Poseidon", the bare-chested man with the mask and the spear appear in photo B at the very same position, i.e. the photos must have been shot within fractions of a second:

A match-up with the video shows that photo B and the Ryan photo are taken 2 - 2,5 seconds after the blast. I leave it to the reader to check this as an exercise.

Photo B bears more interesting details: first, there are two or more people on the street near the mailbox, marked by a purple square. It is impossible to identify them, but they are probably identical to the people highlighted in photo A. They don't seem to be heavily injured, because all of them move away quickly.

The most interesting detail however is the man in the white shirt. In photo A, he was lying at the mailbox; in photo B, he's not at the mailbox, but seems to be jumping over the metal barriers via the junction box. This might look like an overinterpretation, it is supported by the video however. At 0:05, after the camera has pivoted to the second bomb site, you can see a little, but distinct white spot in the background moving vertically downwards. This is - most probably - the white shirt of our man as he jumps over the barrier. I've marked his position in this still at 0:05:

You can follow the white dot/shirt after the jump for a very short time: he moves towards the mailbox. Then the camera sways away from the scene.

To sum up:

Photo B: 2 seconds after blast
Photo A: 7 seconds after blast
Photo C: 13 seconds after blast

The benefit of having established this timeline may not be obvious at the first look; for a reconstruction of the events however it is absolutely necessary. The value of the Silverman photos and the potential to utilize them for the Tsarnaev trial must not be underestimated and will certainly manifest itself in the future.

The account of witness "Danny" according to the criminal complaint

The criminal complaint against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was the first official paper with detailed information on the case, published on April 22th, 2013. It contains the earliest account of the victim of the alleged carjacking (later identified as "Danny"). I transcribed the crucial passages (19, 20, 21) for documentary purposes and added section 22 for completion, which is not part of the victim's account.

19. Near midnight on April 18, 2013, an individual carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A victim of the carjacking was interviewed by law enforcement and provided the following information. The victim stated that while he was sitting in his car on a road in Cambridge, a man approached and tapped on his passenger-side window. When the victim rolled down the window, the man reached in, opened the door, and entered the victim's vehicle. The man pointed a firearm at the victim and stated, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion?" and "I did that." The man removed the magazine from his gun and showed the victim that it had a bullet in it, and then re-inserted the magazine. The man then stated, "I am serious."

20. The man with the gun forced the victim to drive to another location, where they picked up a second man. The two men put something in the trunk of the victim's vehicle. The man with the gun took the victim's keys and sat in the driver's seat, while the victim moved to the front passenger seat. The second man entered the victim's vehicle and sat in the rear passenger seat. The man with the gun and the second man spoke to each other in a foreign language.

21. While they were driving, the man with the gun demanded money from the victim, who gave the man 45 dollars. One of the men compelled the victim to hand over his ATM card and password. They then drove to an ATM machine and attempted to withdraw money from the victim's account. The two men and the victim then drove to a gas station/convenience store in the vicinity of 816 Memorial Drive, Cambridge. The two men got out of the car, at which point the victim managed to escape.

22. A short time later, the stolen vehicle was located by law enforcement in Watertown, Massachusetts. As the men drove down Dexter Street in Watertown, they threw at least two small improvised explosive devices ("IEDs") out of the car. A gun fight ensued between the car's occupants and law enforcement officers in which numerous shots were fired. One of the men was severly injured and remained at the scene; the other managed to escape in the car. That car was later found abandoned a short distance away, and an intact low-grade explosive device was discovered inside it. In addition, from the scene of the shootout on Laurel Street in Watertown, the FBI has recovered two unexploded IEDs, as well as the remnants of numerous exploded IEDs.

The smothered arrest of a Boston Bombing suspect on April 17th

In two blog entries (here and here) I already have highlighted the turbulent news releases two days after the Boston Marathon bombings. John King of CNN has played the most prominent role here: first, he reported that law enforcement had identified a suspicious dark-skinned male on a surveillance video who placed a black backpack in front of the Forum restaurant. An hour later, he reported that an arrest had been made, in succession of a twitter message from Associated Press.

As an instant reaction to this AP tweet, several hundred journalists gathered in front of the Boston federal courthouse in anticipation of the arrival of the arrested suspect. Some of them, like Kelley Tuthill of the Boston TV station WCVB, went inside. Court staff told her that a courtroom (Nr. 18) was prepared for "some kind of appearance". But soon authorities denied that an arrest had been made, and at the same time the courthouse was evacuated due to a "code red" security alert, a very rare event. A bomb threat was later given as an explanation, but without any details.

After the crowd was forced back from the entrance and the street, a white van with tinted windows and a US marshal clinging to the passenger door passed by and entered the building via the back driveway. This incident was quickly brushed under the carpet and has raised no queries by anyone afterwards, but it is well documented by photos, video footage and twitter messages. In this WCVB video

http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/_557781/uiconf_id/21039792/entry_id/1_mzq8y0f4 

you can see the van right from the start as he arrives at the courthouse, turns left and drives into the building.

These circumstances don't allow any other conclusion than that the van transported an arrested and potentially dangerous person to be arraigned at the courthouse. The conclusion that the courthouse was evacuated to expel the journalists inside lest they got a glimpse at the arrested individual is nearly inevitable. The presence of several Homeland Security cars in front of the building shows that the arrest was terror-related. The timely correlation to the messages of the arrest and their retraction strongly suggests that the person in the van was the subject of these messages - almost certainly the dark-skinned male reported by King.

The events of April 17th have been accompanied by several real-time online accounts. For a better oversight, I have compiled three timelines:

- a timeline of WCVB twitter messages
- a timeline of Boston police scanner messages, passed on real-time by three websites
- a summarized timeline with the most important points

The noted hours in the time designations on the websites are dependent on the time zone. The context of the messages however unambigously points to the real hour; I adjusted the times respectively.

WCVB Timeline - all times are p.m.

http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marathon?Page=33

http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marathon?Page=34

http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marathon?Page=35

1:26  Janet Wu says an arrest is imminent and may have already taken place.
1:43  AP: suspect to be brought to court

1:48  Janet Wu reports it is a man who was arrested.

1:49  The official says the suspect is to be taken into custody by federal marshals and taken to a Boston courthouse.

1:53  CNN reports the arrest has been made.

1:56  A source tells Newscenter5's Janet Wu that one male suspect delivered both bombs.

2:02  Law enforcement official: Boston Marathon bomb suspect in custody, expected in federal court.

2:03  Intense security at federal court. Anticipating arrival of suspect in bombings.

2:07  Suspect arrested Boston Marathon bombings, heading to Federal Court now.

2:20  Tons of media outside federal courthouse

2:21  Still anticipating arrival of possible suspect in bombings at federal court at any minute... Arrest may have been earlier this morning

2:23  One homeland security guard: " very good day for us "

2:24  There are now conflicting reports on whether the suspect in custody has been formally arrested.

2:32  Several sources are now reporting that no arrest has been made. However, several sources report that a suspect is in custody.

2:34  One federal police officer says arrival expected " within the hour ". Not official word

2:39  Boston Police says no arrest but high security at courthouse and Fed police say suspect arrival soon according to reporters there.

2:48  Federal officials deny that Boston Marathon bombing suspect is in custody.

3:00  Now all media and others moved across street from courthouse.

3:00  Despite all the denials, the Associated Press is standing by its story of a suspect in custody: The official who spoke to the AP did so on condition of anonymity and stood by the information even after it was disputed.

3:04  Evacuation federal courthouse. Code red called on loud speaker.

3:07  The Boston Federal Courthouse is being evacuated. The reason is not clear. US Marshal vans arrived with heavily armed personnel.

3:07  Media pushed across the street from Moakley courthouse and now many people are leaving the building.

3:10  A white van with a police officer clinging to the rear has pulled into the Moakley Courthouse.

3:15  There is a great deal of police boats and Coast Guard boats on the harbor side of the courthouse.

3:38  Kelley Tuthill reports that court personnel were preparing a courtroom for some kind of appearance.

3:55  Kelley Tuthill: I know a lot confusion out there. I can only tell you I was sitting there when court staff told me they were preparing courtroom 18.

3:59  US Marshal: The evacuation was due to a bomb threat received at the courthouse. The building is being swept at this time.

Police Scanner Timeline - all times are p.m. 

http://www.justicequest.net/forums/showthread.php?t=72966&page=28 

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/off-topic/494233-reports-explosions-boston-marathon-finish-line-18.html 

http://www.landthieves.com/board/showthread.php?54092-Boston-Marathon-Bombing/page19

 

1:21

2:01

 

2:03 Near MIT, looking for motorcade driving from MIT towards courthouse? Not sure why they would mention looking for this.

2:07

 

2:09 Someone from the US Marshall office. Huge motorcade with police contingent in Kendall Sq. area.

2:13

2:17

2:24

2:34

Summarized timeline - all times are p.m.

ca. 1:30  The suspect is arrested

ca. 1:50  First media reports that a suspect is in custody

ca. 2:00  The suspect is moved from MIT via Kendall Square and Interstate 93 to the federal courthouse, accompanied by a police motorcade

ca. 2:20  The convoy with the suspect arrives at the courthouse, but cannot move on because a journalist crowd has gathered in front of the entrance

ca. 2:30  Beginning denials that an arrest has been made

ca. 3:00  The courthouse is evacuated due to a "code red" alert. The crowd is forced back from the street. AP still stands to its story - for the last time - that a suspect is in custody.

ca. 3:10  A white van with an US marshal clinging to the passenger door - and most probably the suspect inside - enters the courthouse via the back driveway.


Questions arising:

Why was the arrest of a suspect denied in spite of being extensively reported on the Boston police scanner?

What was courtroom 18 prepared for (Kelley Tuthill), if not the arraignment of a suspect?

Who was the obviously arrested person inside the white van?

Why was the white van driving into the courthouse in spite of the fact that the courthouse was evacuated shortly before under a "code red" threat?