Boston Marathon bombings

By Aryan Patel

CWP - Mr. Auwerda

Summary
The Boston Marathon Bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on April 15, 2013,
when two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three
spectators and wounding more than 260 other people.
Who committed the attack?
Police arrested one of the bombing suspects after an extensive manhunt, 19-year-old
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose older brother and fellow perpetrator, 26-year-old Tamerlan
Tsarnaev, died as a result of a law enforcement shooting. The investigators concluded
that the Tsarnaevs, who had spent their childhood in the former Soviet republic of
Kyrgyzstan, had plotted and carried out the attack on their own and had no connection
with terrorist organisations.
Motivation for the attack
According to FBI interrogators, Dzhokhar and his brother were motivated by Islamic
beliefs but were not connected to any known terrorist groups, they learned how to
build explosive weapons from an online magazine, which they used during the attack.
Result of attack
A total of 281 individuals were injured, and 127 patients were treated that day at the
health care centers. At the scene, there were 3 immediate deaths. Most of the patients
had lower limb soft tissue and bone fractures, and 31 had signs of hemorrhage. Many of
these patients had to receive surgery because of major injuries.
Response to Attack
People after the attack barely went out for weeks, they hardly interacted with each
other. They were constantly in fear of what might happen next. The government
responded immediately and put measures into place where some areas were under lock
down.
Facts about attack
● The brothers emigrated in 2002 from Kyrgyzstan as political refugees with their
parents and two sisters.
● Dzhokhar was a student at the University of Massachusetts at the time of the
bombings, and was a successful martial arts fighter and boxer at Dartmouth and
Tamerlan. Both were accepted as Muslims, but had non-Muslim mates, and until
2008 they were not considered to be extreme.
● The bombing consisted of two pressure cooker bombs that were exploded at 2:49
pm approximately 200 yards apart near the race's finish line.

● In 2010, Tamerlan won the amateur New England Golden Gloves boxing contest.
Works Cited
“Boston Marathon Bombing Facts.” Math,
www.softschools.com/facts/us_history/boston_marathon_bombing_facts/3928/.

Gates, Jonathan D, et al. “The Initial Response to the Boston Marathon Bombing: Lessons Learned to Prepare for the
next Disaster.” Annals of Surgery, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Dec. 2014,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5531449/.

“NFPA Journal.” NFPA Journal - After the Marathon Bombing, May June 2017,
www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-media/NFPA-Journal/2017/May-June-2017/Features/Marathon.