Bombers caught?!?

[DHonks]

Been watching for 3 hours now...supposedly now both bombing suspects in custody. Massive shootout throughout the Boston area, high-speed chase, bombs being thrown, etc

[DHonks]

hat tip to folks on Reddit and elsewhere, but it sounds like a missing Brown University student is apparently the "white hat" bomber.

[BradWI]

hat tip to folks on Reddit and elsewhere, but it sounds like a missing Brown University student is apparently the "white hat" bomber.

NBC is refuting this now despite that name being said on the scanner. Just crazy. Been listening to the scanner since 10pm. Too riveting to sleep.

[RobDeer 45]

Man this is really crazy. I hope they can bring this guy in alive without anyone else being hurt.

[homer]

I made the mistake of checking Twitter before going to bed last night. Stayed up another two hours.

 

My brother lives about a mile from where the one bomber was killed.

[Patrick425]

I have the live feed on from one of the Boston news channels as I'm working. The whole scene in Boston today reminds me of something out of an episode of "24".

[homer]

I have the live feed on from one of the Boston news channels as I'm working. The whole scene in Boston today reminds me of something out of an episode of "24".

 

My brother sent me a text this morning that said something to the effect of "We could really use Jack Bauer right now." Obviously trying to stay positive during an otherwise very stressful time. Not trying to make light of situation at all.

[JackNicholson1974]

Im in no position to talk, but this just seems like a giant fail for law enforcement at this point. They were following the vehicle with both suspects in it last night, now there are thousands of cops, FBI, copters, you name it looking for the kid in a town that is completely locked down and they cant find him? I hope it is because he is already taken his own life, because my feeling is that come morning tomorrow they arent going to be able to "lockdown" an entire town any longer, people will have to go back to life in general and this kid slips out of town.

[DHonks]

Amazing to me that last night they didn't have rapid deployment forces on standby with vehicles or helicopters. They had a ton of vehicles...must have seen 400-700 police cars. I think I went to bed at 3-something here in Arizona....of course woke up at 5:45 for work.

 

Amazing that the missing Indian-American student appeared a dead-on match for this suspect. Then to wake up and here it had nothing to do with him. Such drama today. This needs to end soon.

[TURBO]

It might be ending right now, they have him cornered...

 

If you are not watching CNN, better do it, it is happening right now...

[JackNicholson1974]

Ive got CNN on-upped, Im on the Boston police scanner. They've got him in a boat behind a house. He is alive and moving.

[AZBrewCrew]

They will take their time capturing him alive. Its going to be hurry up and wait at this point

[AZBrewCrew]

Are you listening through Broadcastify? I'm not able to connect

[brettac1]

hat tip to folks on Reddit and elsewhere, but it sounds like a missing Brown University student is apparently the "white hat" bomber.

It's unfortunate that a lot of people will end up believing this was true. Terrible.

[DHonks]

brettac1, that was obviously debunked. The reason for it because of an extremely close photo resemblance (not sure how close they look in real life), an odd disappearance, and the police identifying the suspect by that name on police bands. It makes me wonder when they realized it was these guys, because the suspects had uncanny resemblances to the poor Indian-Americans that were accused. While it was exciting to have a potential name last night, it didn't seem to add up seeing as its the wrong religion (haven't heard of Hindu/sikh having a beef with US) and the color of skin would be different than the pictures showed. But the facial features sure looked close.

 

Whether it was right or wrong, it was apparently a plausible enough theory that law enforcement had the individuals on their radar. I'm glad there have been mass apologies for people wrongfully accusing the individuals. I'm also glad the other people considered suspicious did the right thing to clear their names and went to police/FBI HQ to clear their names. I'm sure they'll feel awful having been accused of this. The good news is their names were cleared. From following a bit on some websites, the biggest travesty I saw wasn't that people on various websites were developing names or suggesting suspects. Instead, the travesty was that while these groups intended to use the forums for discussions, the worldwide media and people on social media opted to take these peoples' ideas/thoughts/suspicions as if they were official FBI suspects and publish them for the masses.

[AZBrewCrew]

Suspect in custody.

[DHonks]

WOO HOO!!!!!

 

In class, my students asked my thoughts. I mentioned that perhaps it's because I'm of the 9/11 generations, I feel we were cheated of seeing the 19 hijackers put on trial. As a citizen, it makes me very happy that we were able to take the suspect alive. The trial will help the nation heal. Hopefully the wounds of the families and victims will be able to heal with time.

 

One question now...trial in Boston court or Federal court? Given the attack that happened, it would seem he could be tried as an enemy combatant given the potential terror-related charges.

[trwi7]

Definitely going to federal court.

[AZBrewCrew]

Can't remember which of the 10 news channels I've been flipping through but one said he would be coming up on Federal Terrorism charges handled by the FBI and not on state murder charges. Interesting to note here,Massachusetts doesn't have the death penalty while federal charges may carry them

[DHonks]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. I assumed that was the case. And yes, the media reported multiple times that the voters of Mass have twice approved the death penalty however it has not been implemented by the legislatures. Either way, just glad that we get to see him face justice.

[AZBrewCrew]

To quote one of my favourite movies. . "He wont be going to white collar resort prison..."

[brettac1]

brettac1, that was obviously debunked. The reason for it because of an extremely close photo resemblance (not sure how close they look in real life), an odd disappearance, and the police identifying the suspect by that name on police bands. It makes me wonder when they realized it was these guys, because the suspects had uncanny resemblances to the poor Indian-Americans that were accused. While it was exciting to have a potential name last night, it didn't seem to add up seeing as its the wrong religion (haven't heard of Hindu/sikh having a beef with US) and the color of skin would be different than the pictures showed. But the facial features sure looked close.

The fact is, there was zero reason to think there was any connection whatsoever, aside from the sound of his name and the color of his skin. Really a sad reflection of the times we live in. Any idiot can do some photoshop work and tweet it out and somehow it becomes accepted by large numbers of people.

[TooLiveBrew]

Well the main reason that theory gained such traction was that the authorities were pursuing it as a tangible lead over their radios. So it's not like it was purely a product of any idiot with Photoshop.

[DHonks]

I saw it differently. I was convinced and telling my students that I felt this was a domestic terrorist incident. It didn't seem sophisticated enough for a professional foreign agency. Plus as an Econ teacher, I couldn't help but notice that the bombing was on Tax Day. My attitude only changed once the FBI released the photos of the individuals. I thought they appeared eastern European more than Indian, but "suspect #2" was a very close match to the picture of the missing Indian-American student. I'm sorry, perhaps you thought of color of skin right away. My natural instinct was also to think of color of skin, and I thought white. It did not cross my mind that these would be foreign terrorists. But when the pictures came out that showed people of a slightly darker complexion and featured very unique facial features (suspect 2's nose). That's when people on the internet pored over pictures of the events. Others suggested #2 looked like the missing Indian-American student. At first glance it didn't seem to match, until his profile showed similar head shape. The only things facially that didn't look a match to amateurs were a small mole on his cheek and the shade of skin color. Of course, quality of photos can account for both. When the Boston police department said that they were pursuing the missing Indian-American suspect AND an accomplice (Mike something), it allowed many of us to assume that the internet pseudo-sleuths were right. In fact, when I posted early this morning and mentioned the Indian-American, it's because the police used that name. Maybe some people looked at the bombing with anti-foreign sentiment, but of my friends it was a 6-1 ratio, domestic-to-foreign.

 

I do feel bad for the young high school student that was targeted for questioning by the gov't. Although that was also a fair request by the FBI since he and his coach/friend were seen mingling in the area for hours with backpacks and bags matching the description. I just wish that people wouldn't have taken his photo and assumed that "wanted for questioning" meant "suspect." Unfortunately, people jumped to conclusions.

[logan82]

Can this get dropped in the bucket for more bad journalism? Where can you go to get decent news anymore?