WASHINGTON (TIP): Amid much confusion over the past 24 hours, it has emerged that US authorities have video grabs of at least one suspect and a few “persons of interest” in the Boston marathon bombing incident, but no arrests have been made yet. The images came from a store camera and cell phone footage from bystanders near the finish line where the explosions took place. In one instance, an individual is said to appear planting a bag close to where the explosions took place and then decamp from the scene even as others were stunned by the blast that follows.
But in what came as a relief to many American immigrant communities, especially those from the subcontinent, it appears the prime suspect may be a white male, or at least not a “darkskinned” individual as one cable television channel reported initially. Also, the pressure cooker that was improvised as a bomb is made by a Spanish company named Fagor, and not one of the more popular ones from the subcontinent that are widely available in Asian stores here. The company said authorities had approached it for help in the probe and it was cooperating.
Even as the FBI is lining up a manhunt, President Obama arrived in Boston to commiserate with the city and speak at an interfaith memorial where he pledged to find the terrorists and hold them responsible. Calling the killers “small stunted individuals who will rather destroy than build and think that makes them important,” Obama said America’s fidelity to a free and open society will only grow stronger. The media meanwhile got panned by the FBI by getting ahead of the story and reporting the arrest of a suspect late on April 17 when competitive pressure seemed to cause some reporters to overreach and over-interpret leaks.