The investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing that left three dead and at least 176 injured will likely go on for weeks, potentially leaving businesses in the blast zone shuttered as FBI, ATF and Boston Police gather evidence and attempt to piece together the deadly attack.
The blast field from the two homemade bombs that marred what is usually one of the most joyous days of the year for Bostonians spread all the way to nearby rooftops, leaving debris embedded in nearby exterior walls, according to a special agent from the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency.
The agencies have already recovered several items from the large blast area, encompassing several blocks of Boylston Street in the city’s Back Bay neighborhood. Among the evidence were pieces of black nylon, possibly from a backpack, and shards of BB pellets and nails, as well as fragments possibly from a pressure cooker, according to the FBI.
However, the agencies are still unsure if the bombs were inside the buildings damaged in the attack or were somewhere on the sidewalk, Steven Bartholomew, ATF special agent, told Banker & Tradesman. As part of the investigation, agencies could investigate recent pressure cooker purchases in the case that "there was maybe something odd" or threatening about the person making the purchase, Bartholomew said.
"We’re still determining the actual origin of the blast," Bartholomew said after yesterday’s press conference. "These investigations are lengthy. We want to make sure we do a thorough job. We don’t know how long [the businesses will be closed]."
The actual materials used in bombs will not be released until the FBI’s forensics experts in Quantico, Va., have tested them. The field of suspects in the attack is still open, and it is still too early to say if the attack came from a locally-grown attacker or from an international terror group, Bartholomew said. According to reports, the bombings took the lives of Krystle Campbell, 29, of Medford; Chinese citizen and Boston University graduate student as Lu Lingzi; and 8-year-old Dorchester resident Martin Richard.
The agencies conducting the investigation are under the umbrella of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which the U.S. Department of Justice’s website describes as "small cells of highly trained, locally based, passionately committed investigators, analysts, linguists, SWAT experts, and other specialists from dozens of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies."
Even though the terrorism task force is being utilized, Bartholomew said the groups were not willing to say definitively the attacks were terrorism, but that they are utilizing "the resources we have now."
