A twenty-year-old man who had been watching the Boston Marathon had his body torn into by the force of a bomb. He wasnt alone; a hundred and seventy-six people were injured and three were killed. But he was the only one who, while in the hospital being treated for his wounds, had his apartment searched in a startling show of force, as his fellow-tenants described it to the Boston Herald, with a phalanx of officers and agents and two K9 units. He was the one whose belongings were carried out in paper bags as his neighbors watched; whose roommate, also a student, was questioned for five hours (I was scared) before coming out to say that he didnt think his friend was someone whod plant a bombthat he was a nice guy who liked sports. Let me go to school, dude, the roommate said later in the day, covering his face with his hands and almost crying, as a Fox News producer followed him and asked him, again and again, if he was sure he hadnt been living with a killer.
Why the search, the interrogation, the dogs, the bomb squad, and the injured mans name tweeted out, attached to the word suspect”? After the bombs went off, people were running in every directionso was the young man. Many, like him, were hurt badly; many of them were saved by the unflinching kindness of strangers, who carried them or stopped the bleeding with their own hands and improvised tourniquets. Exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood, President Obama said. They helped one another, consoled one another, Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, said. In the midst of that, according to a CBS News report, a bystander saw the young man running, badly hurt, rushed to him, and then tackled him, bringing him down. People thought he looked suspicious.
What made them suspect him? He was runningso was everyone. The police reportedly thought he smelled like explosives; his wounds might have suggested why. He said something about thinking there would be a second bombas there was, and often is, to target responders. If that was the reason he gave for running, it was a sensible one. He asked if anyone was deada question people were screaming. And he was from Saudi Arabia, which is around where the logic stops. Was it just the way he looked, or did he, in the chaos, maybe call for God with a name that someone found strange?....
