Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

People are escorted across Boylston Street on April 23 as residents and business owners are allowed to return to the street for the first time since the Boston Marathon bombings.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

BOSTON — A week and a day after the Boston Marathon bombings, business owners and residents began to return Tuesday to the six-block, cordoned-off area of the attack that investigators painstakingly scoured for evidence.

It has been a long wait for Joy Lee and her employees at Samurai Boston, a store near the race’s finish line on Boylston Street.  Lee said she has been unable to get to tax and payroll documents since the bombings and she missed a deadline to file meal taxes. Even her car has been blocked off behind the police barriers still decorated with flowers and messages of support.

"We have all the employees text messaging me every single day," Lee said as she waited to return to her business in a steady drizzle Tuesday. "They’re all looking for jobs. They have to pay the rent."

Lee said she would take two employees with her back into the restaurant Tuesday to clean up and clear food gone bad from the refrigerators. She was one of many Boylston business owners expected to show up at the Hynes Convention Center to re-enter their shops under a staggered schedule laid out by the city.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s office released a plan Monday night to bring Boylston back to life after investigators handed the site back to the city in a brief ceremony. The plan allowed residents and business owners with essential staff to return to return block-by-block from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The city has not yet announced when the street will be reopened to the public.

At the barricades on Clarendon and Boylston streets, where police allowed pedestrians and vehicles to pass Tuesday, a man and woman in running gear shared a long embrace before jogging away.

Makeshift memorials remain, many of them bearing the names of the victims killed in the attack — Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard, and Lu Lingzi — as well as that of Sean Collier, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer believed to have been slain Thursday by the alleged bombers.

The prolonged closure may have untold long-term effects for some businesses in the area, but some Bostonians said Tuesday they’ll dig into their own pockets to ensure the shops and restaurants that line the area around the marathon’s finish line make a strong comeback.

"I already made a reservation at Atlantic Fish Company," said Dan Gross, 30, an account executive at an advertising agency near Boylston. He is booked for 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday, and says if they’re serving, he’ll be there.

The restaurant said that it remained closed "until further notice" in a statement on its website Tuesday.

"I think everyone should just get back there and support the businesses," Gross said. "They lost a lot."

John Berosh, 46, heard the first explosion from his office on the 22nd floor of an office building overlooking the race.

"I knew something wasn’t right," said the software engineer, an 18-year resident of the city. "I went to the window and saw a huge, hideous cloud of smoke coming up from the street." Then he saw the second bomb go off.

Berosh, who said he watches the marathon from his office most years, said he’s ready for Boylston to get back to its usual bustle.

"I am very excited," he said. "I am very proud to tell you that I was here at work last Thursday and Friday, just to hold the door for someone, smile at someone.”

But like Lee, who’s worried about helping her employees make their rents, Berosh said it’s not just the business owners who have been set back by the closure.

"Tip your waiters," Berosh said.

An electronics repair store called iFixYouri on adjacent Newbury Street was shut for several days after the bombings.

"We’re a small, family-run company, and the impact of what happened last week has been significant," said Michelle Zausnig, vice president of marketing for the Florida-based company. “Being shut down, it impacted us as a small business because we don’t have unlimited resources."

The store saw a return to regular business when it re-opened last Friday.

"We’re expecting to rise again, just like the city," Zausnig said.

Related:

• Suspect: We copied bombs from al Qaeda
• Slain cop's sister: A 'nightmare come true'
• Alleged bomber's dad: It's a set-up

Courtesy of the McMahon family

Ryan McMahon (middle) suffered fractures to her back and wrists when she fell off the VIP grandstand in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. She is flanked by her father, John, and her mother, Donna. She is seen taking her first steps after the attacks.

BOSTON – Nearly 20 people out of the more than 170 wounded in the Boston Marathon bombings were hurt so badly that they had to have one or two limbs amputated -- while another 50 other injured runners and spectators are still in the hospital a week after the blast.

But another group of hurt survivors are beginning the long roads to recovery at home, with hospitals releasing more people each day. Though they are leaving, they may spend months or more recovering from multiple broken bones, damage caused by shrapnel or painful ruptured eardrums.

Ryan McMahon, 33, is one of those survivors. Suffering from fractures to her back and wrists, she left the hospital on Monday a week after the attacks to embark on the next part of her journey to recovery, which will include physical therapy and possibly mental health support.

"I want my Boston back … I just want to see my town, you know, and like I feel like they stole it," she said through sobs. "I love this city. ... It just has a lot of heart."

But as eager as she is to get back to normal, McMahon was anxious about her release, too. “I actually don't know what's going to happen, so (I'm) just setting up all of the support."

"I know how lucky I am. … I am going to be fine,” she said. “It was just really hard, especially being in the ER and just seeing how many horrible injuries there were and just hoping that everyone is going to be okay and get through this."

Ryan's mother has watched the injured forge ahead in the hospital as she tended to her daughter.

"The strength that they have moving forward, it’s been really quite something to see. ... They're survivors," said Donna McMahon, a 57-year-old nanny who lives in western Massachusetts. "It's a real lesson … the human spirit and how you just, you know, fight back and go on."

Ryan is one of those fighting back from her injuries, both emotional and physical.

Over the last week, she watched TV reports of the manhunt for the two suspects – Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a gun battle with police and his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was captured late Friday.

Ryan sent a lot of "angry texts” as the authorities searched for the pair — which isn't like her, she said.

"I'm still trying to understand all my feelings about this," she said.

She ended up in the hospital after watching the first blast go off directly across from where she was sitting with friends at the top of a VIP grandstand. The group nervously looked at each other and decided to get out.

As they did, the second explosion tore through the air and a frenzied exodus began from the riser.

Ryan looked under the bleachers and thought her best chance would be to climb down, but the thunderous shaking as people ran from the stands caused her to lose her hold and she was tossed into the air, landing on her back.

Though she also had a concussion, adrenaline gave her enough fuel to propel her through the streets, running, as she and her friends sought help.

"I definitely knew I hurt my back when I fell, but my friends said ‘we’ve got to get out of here,’ and that was the main thing," she said. "I just knew that ... if there was another blast I would be by far worse" off.

Kind strangers picked up the group in a cab and dropped them off at the hospital, where Ryan was among the first to arrive and had a front-row seat to see other patients rolling into the emergency room.

Ryan had surgery on her right wrist, which was seriously damaged and is now tucked in a cast, and has braces on her other wrist and her back. Doctors have said it could take six months to a year to recover, but she can walk.

“She came out of the surgery fighting, feisty. She was a big sister bossing her brothers around,” said her dad, John McMahon, 58, who works in sales.

Though they know she has a long journey ahead, her release was “awesome,” Donna said.

As for Ryan, she has some plans for this time next year: She intends to run in her first Boston Marathon.

Related:

Classmates of bomb suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev suggest 'brainwashing' by brother

Terrorists may leave 'digital breadcrumbs' for investigators

Boston nurses tell of bloody aftermath

Justin Lane / EPA

A moment of silence is marked on the steps of the Massachusetts State House one week since the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Boston observed a moment of silence at 2:50 p.m. Monday – exactly one week after an annual springtime rite in the city was shattered by a pair of explosions that killed three people and injured more than 200, including some who lost legs.

From the Watertown police department whose officers searched their town for a bombing suspect to the Massachusetts State House to the neighborhood where a little boy who died in the attack had lived, the city remembered those it lost.

A full minute of silence was observed at the request of Gov. Deval Patrick, Mayor Thomas Menino, and charitable organization One Fund Boston. The White House announced that President Obama marked the occasion, as did the New York Stock Exchange. Governors in Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut asked residents of their states to take a minute to commemorate those killed and injured as well.

Earlier Monday, a funeral for victim Krystle Campbell, 29, at St. Joseph’s Church in Medford was packed to overflowing, with a thousand more people standing outside. Gov. Patrick was joined inside by Attorney General Martha Coakley and Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley.

“The great irony was it was so peaceful, loving, and supportive, and we were all there for a senseless, angry, horrific tragedy,” Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn said after the ceremony. “Everybody knew her as someone with a great sense of humor. They say at times she was a little loud but everybody loved her for it.”

About one thousand members of Teamsters Local 25 gathered at St. Joseph’s Church earlier in the day after the Westboro Baptist Church said they planned to demonstrate, according to local president Sean O’Brien. But no members of Westboro showed up, he said.

PhotoBlog: Mourners pause for moment of silence

On Sunday, a wake was held for Campbell, and lines stretched out the door and down the street from the funeral home. The memorial, which was scheduled to last an hour, went on for five, WHDH reported.

Medford draped a 45-by-90-foot American flag across the front of city hall on Monday morning in honor of Campbell and the other victims. McGlynn said he had the flag commissioned after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Jim Bourg / Reuters

Two-year-old Wesley Brillant of Natick, Massachusetts kneels in front of a memorial to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings near the scene of the blasts on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts, April 21, 2013.

At Boston University, where Chinese graduate student Lu Lingzi, 23, was working toward a master’s degree in statistics before being killed in the explosions near the marathon finish line, a public memorial was planned for 7 p.m. Monday night.

A memorial scholarship has been instituted in Lu’s memory.

“There isn’t an individual at BU who didn’t have some connection to people who were there,” university trustee Kenneth Feld said in a release from the school.

Over the weekend, more balloons and teddy bears were added to a makeshift memorial for 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester, who died last Monday as well. His mother Denise and sister Jane, 7, were wounded in the blast; Denise required brain surgery and Jane lost a leg to the pressure-cooker bombs set off on the race sidelines.

The Richard family thanked law enforcement for “a job well done” in a statement released after the capture of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Richard was remembered at a packed mass on Sunday at the family’s St. Ann Parish in Dorchester, where neighbors have said his parents are active community members.

“Our entire community shares the grief and suffering felt by our young family,” the parish’s Father Sean Connor said in a letter on the church’s website. “We can only imagine the suffering that the Richard family carries today, as a result of the Boston Marathon tragedy, will be with them each day of their lives.”

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Running shoes are placed at a makeshift memorial for victims near the finish line of the Boston Marathon bombings at the intersection of Newbury Street and Darthmouth Street.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology mourned the loss of a popular campus safety officer who only got to enjoy a little more than a year on the job. Officer Sean Collier was shot and killed by the suspected bombers late on Thursday night, police said. The men shot the 26-year-old Collier multiple times while he was sitting in his vehicle, according to authorities.

A memorial service for Collier has been planned for Wednesday, April 24, at noon, according to a release from MIT police. Collier’s family has requested that his wake and funeral services remain private.

The proceeds from a Brahms performance at MIT on Sunday that drew hundreds of singers from local choruses were donated to One Fund Boston. The school also created the Sean Collier Memorial fund, which will support an award for individuals “who demonstrate the values of Officer Collier,” according to a letter from University President L. Rafael Reif on Monday.

On Monday, the areas where the blasts occurred were transitioning from crime scene to street scene. Mementos left at a makeshift memorial on Boylston Street are being moved to a park at nearby Copley Square; city workers on Sunday began removing the running shoes, flowers, and notes left by friends, family, and strangers with the goal of having all pieces of the memorial moved by the end of the week.

Students and faculty at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where alleged bomber and Suspect 2 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was enrolled as a sophomore, planned to observe the minute of silence. A student vigil on campus was planned for 5 p.m.

The mayor’s office released a five-step plan on Sunday to reopen the area around the finish line on Boylston Street that included testing buildings near the blast sites and removing debris.

“Nearly a week ago our city took a deep breath and was forced to dive into a pool of uncertainty and fear,” Menino said in a press release. “Friday as our officers reported to the world ‘we got him,’ a huge sigh of relief was felt across our great city and nation so now it is time for us to start moving our city forward.”

Slideshow: Boston bombings

Dominick Reuter / Reuters

Cheers filled the streets after a Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night — following a daylong manhunt that shut down the city.

Launch slideshow

Related:

• 'Adorable' boy, 8, mourned after Boston Marathon blasts
• Second Boston Marathon bombing victim identified as 29-year-old woman
• Outpouring of grief for third Boston victim, Chinese university student

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:39 AM EDT

Polaris

Katherine Russell, the American wife of alleged marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, leaves the house where he lived on Norfolk street in Cambridge, Mass.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Federal authorities have asked to speak with the wife of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and her lawyer said Sunday he is discussing with them how to proceed.

Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press that Katherine Russell Tsarnaev did not speak to federal officials who came to her parents' home in North Kingstown, R.I., Sunday evening, where she has been staying since her husband was killed during a getaway attempt early Friday.

Slideshow: Boston’s week : mayhem, manhunt … and a takedown

John Tlumacki / Boston Globe / Getty Images Contributor

Police officers with their guns drawn hear the second explosion down the street. The first explosion knocked down a runner at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon.

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Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, two ethnic Chechen brothers from southern Russia, are accused of planting two explosives near the marathon finish line Monday, killing three people and injuring more than 180. A motive remains unclear.

DeLuca said he spoke with the officials instead, but would not offer further details.

"I spoke to them, and that's all I can say right now," he said. "We're deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this."

DeLuca also offered new details on Tamerlan Tsarnaev's movements in the days after the bombings, saying the last day he was alive that "he was home" when his wife left for work. When asked whether anything seemed amiss to his wife following the bombings, DeLuca responded, "Not as far as I know." He said she learned her husband was a suspect in the bombings by seeing it on TV. He would not elaborate.

DeLuca said his client did not suspect her husband of anything, and that there was no reason for her to have suspected him. He said she had been working 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week as a home health care aide. While she was at work, her husband cared for their toddler daughter, DeLuca said.

"When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family," he told the AP.

He said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was off at college and she saw him "not at all" at the apartment they shared with her mother-in-law.

Earlier story: Family of slain bombing suspect's widow: 'Our hearts are sickened'

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev was attending Suffolk University in Boston when friends introduced her to her future husband at a nightclub, DeLuca said. They dated on and off, then married in 2009 or 2010, he said.

She was raised Christian, but at some point after meeting Tamerlan Tsarnaev, she converted to Islam, he said. When asked why she converted, he replied: "She believes in the tenets of Islam and of the Koran. She believes in God."

Related:

• Badly wounded Boston Marathon bombing suspect responding to questions
• Classmates of suspected bomber suggest 'brainwashing' by older brother
• Terrorists may leave 'digital breadcrumbs' for investigators

The screams and cries of bloody marathon bombing victims still haunt the nurses who treated them one week ago. They did their jobs as they were trained to do, putting their own fears in a box during their 12-hour shifts so they could better comfort their patients.

Only now are these nurses beginning to come to grips with what they endured, and are still enduring as they continue to care for survivors. They are angry, sad and tired. A few confess they would have trouble caring for the surviving suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, if he were at their hospital and they were assigned his room.

And they are thankful. They tick off the list of their hospital colleagues for praise: from the security officers who guarded the doors to the ER crews who mopped up trails of blood; the doctors and, especially, the other nurses.

Nurses from Massachusetts General Hospital, which treated 22 of the 187 victims the first day, candidly recounted their experiences in interviews with The Associated Press. Here are their memories:

THEY WERE SCREAMING

Megann Prevatt, ER nurse: "These patients were terrified. They were screaming. They were crying ... We had to fight back our own fears, hold their hands as we were wrapping their legs, hold their hands while we were putting IVs in and starting blood on them, just try to reassure them: 'We don't know what happened, but you're here. You're safe with us.' ... I didn't know if there were going to be more bombs exploding. I didn't know how many patients we'd be getting. All these thoughts are racing through your mind."

SHRAPNEL, NAILS

Adam Barrett, ICU nurse, shared the patient bedside with investigators searching for clues that might break the case. "It was kind of hard to hear somebody say, 'Don't wash that wound. You might wash evidence away.'" Barrett cleaned shrapnel and nails from the wounds of some victims, side by side with law enforcement investigators who wanted to examine wounds for blast patterns. The investigator's request took him aback at first. "I wasn't stopping to think, 'What could be in this wound that could give him a lead?'"

THEIR FACES, THEIR SMILES

Jean Acquadra, ICU nurse, keeps herself going by thinking of her patients' progress. "The strength is seeing their faces, their smiles, knowing they're getting better. They may have lost a limb, but they're ready to go on with their lives. They want to live. I don't know how they have the strength, but that's my reward: Knowing they're getting better."

She is angry and doesn't think she could take care of Tsarnaev, who is a patient at another hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "I don't have any words for him," Acquadra says.

THE NEED FOR JUSTICE

Christie Majocha, ICU nurse: "Even going home, I didn't get away from it," Majocha said. She is a resident of Watertown, the community paralyzed Friday by the search for the surviving suspect. She helped save the lives of maimed bombing victims on Monday. By week's end, she saw the terror come to her own neighborhood. The manhunt, she felt, was a search for justice, and was being carried out directly for the good of her patients.

"I knew these faces (of the victims). I knew what their families looked like. I saw their tears," she said. "I know those families who are so desperate to see this end."

On Friday night, she joined the throngs cheering the police officers and FBI agents, celebrating late into the night even though she had to return to the hospital at 7 a.m. the next day.

Related:

Rapid strides in limb technology offer hope to Boston victims

Crowdfunding raises cash for victims 

Despite a serious throat wound preventing him from speaking, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect is beginning to respond to questions from investigators, federal officials tell NBC News.

Nearly 48 hours after he was taken into custody following an intense gun battle and manhunt, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was communicating with a special team of federal investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. He was responding to questions mostly in writing because of the throat wound, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The suspect remains in serious condition. 

The throat wound may be the result of a suicide attempt, investigators said.

Officials are hoping to glean more information about the twin blasts Monday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, which killed three people and injured more than 170,  and determine whether Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a firefight with police after a wild chase into the Boston suburb of Watertown on Thursday night, received assistance from others.

Word that the wounded suspect is able to communicate with authorities came as a surprise, especially after details about the severity of his injuries began to emerge earlier in the day. 

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told an interviewer that “we don’t know if we’ll ever be able to question the individual."

Law enforcement sources had said earlier they were putting the final touches on charges against Tsarnaev and would announce them Sunday. However, Justice Department officials said late in the day that charges would not be announced until Monday at the earliest. They did not give a reason for the delay.

Authorities have told NBC News that a special high value detainee interrogation team will question Tsarnaev without advising him of his Miranda rights. A “public safety exemption” allows investigators to question a suspect without being informed of his right to remain silent and to have an attorney present during questioning when it is thought that he or she might have vital information about a threat to public safety.

Other details on the Tsarnaevs emerged Sunday.

NBC News contacted the driver of an SUV who allegedly was carjacked by the brothers hours before the shootout. The driver, who asked that his identity not be revealed, said he escaped after the brothers drove his car to a gas station in Watertown. He described them as “brutal and cautious.” 

Also on Sunday, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said that surveillance video clearly puts Tsarnaev at the scene of the attack, acting suspiciously.

Slideshow: Boston’s week : mayhem, manhunt … and a takedown

John Tlumacki / Boston Globe / Getty Images Contributor

Police officers with their guns drawn hear the second explosion down the street. The first explosion knocked down a runner at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon.

Launch slideshow

"It does seem to be pretty clear that this suspect took the backpack off, put it down, did not react when the first explosion went off and then moved away from the backpack in time for the second explosion," Patrick said on “Meet the Press.” "It's pretty clear about his involvement and pretty chilling, frankly."

Patrick noted that while he had not personally viewed the video recordings, he was briefed by law enforcement on their contents.

More details about the Thursday night chase surfaced over the weekend.

The brothers hurled a pressure-cooker bomb similar to the two that went off at the marathon during the firefight, Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau said on Saturday. The men were in two cars when confronted by a lone police officer, Deveau said, and later threw four grenade-like explosives at pursuing officers.

Still, much remained unknown on Sunday about what might have driven the two suspects to violence. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said on “Meet the Press” that Tamerlan may have traveled under an alias when he took a trip to Russia in 2012.

That trip may have been when Tamerlan, who the FBI identified as Suspect 1, “got that final radicalization to push him to commit acts of violence and where he may have received training,” said committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

Also, crime scene units returned to the scene of Monday’s twin explosions that brought an annual springtime rite to an end in screams and smoke. Debris and trash not far from the bomb site on Boylston Street were taken away in garbage trucks on Sunday after being sifted for evidence.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Sunday he has not seen evidence to link the bombings to any militant or terrorist group, and declined to speculate on whether or not Tsarnaev could be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

“We just don’t have the facts, and until we get the facts, then it will be the responsibility of law enforcement, DOJ, and other institutions to make some determination as to how that individual should be treated, detained, charged, and all that goes with it,” Hagel said. “But right now we just don’t know enough about it.”

Investigators are taking a look at Tsarnaev’s behavior after he returned to the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth after the Monday bombings, Gov. Patrick said Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

“There is evidence of some frankly kind of normal student behavior in those ensuing days, which when you consider the enormity of what he was responsible for certainly raises a lot of questions in my mind and as I say more to the point in the minds of law enforcement as well,” Patrick said. “Those are the kinds of leads that still have to be pursued and run to ground.”

Classmates of suspected bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev suggest 'brainwashing' by older brother

In Boston, the hunt for the suspected perpetrators gave way to a time to mourn a week after the attacks. A funeral for marathon victim Krystle Campbell, 29, a restaurant manager, is scheduled for Monday at St. Joseph Church in her home town of Medford, Mass.

Menino and Patrick along with the central charitable One Fund Boston called for a minute of silence at 2:50 p.m. Monday to mark a week since the bombings. Bells will ring throughout the city and Massachusetts after the minute’s passage, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.

One person injured in the marathon blast was released from the hospital on Sunday, though 52 are still receiving treatment in Boston hospitals, with three in critical condition.

About 36,000 runners participated in the London Marathon on Sunday amid heightened security, many of them wearing black ribbons to commemorate the victims in Boston or carrying “For Boston” signs.

NBC News’ Tom Winter, Michael Isikoff and Jeff Black contributed to this report.

Related: 

• Police, citizens honor officer killed during hunt for Boston bombing suspects
• 'Rapid strides': Limb advances offer hope for Boston amputees
• London Marathon competitors, spectators defy security fears

This story was originally published on Sun Apr 21, 2013 10:53 AM EDT

Updated with video:

Massachusetts State Police

Massachusetts State Police

Above: Infrared images released by the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing appear to show Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday, April 19, hiding in a Watertown, Mass., resident's boat in the resident's backyard. Below: A police vehicle uses a boom to inspect the boat.

Related story: Secret weapon? How thermal imaging helped catch bomb suspect

Massachusetts State Police

Massachusetts State Police

Slideshow: Search for suspects in Boston Marathon bombings

Jared Wickerham / Getty Images

Cheers filled the streets after a Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night — following a daylong manhunt that shut down the city.

Launch slideshow

The successful — and massive — law enforcement effort to obtain public video to help identify the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing shows the need for more government video surveillance cameras, says one congressman. Perhaps drones, too, says a senator.

There are already government closed-circuit TV systems in cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a member of both the House Homeland Security and Intelligence committees, said the nation needs even more video cameras in public places.

"They're a great law enforcement method and device," the congressman told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell the day after the bombing. "It keeps us ahead of the terrorists who are constantly trying to kill us."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Washington Post Friday that the Boston bombings are "Exhibit A of why the homeland is the battlefield," and that it would have been "nice to have a drone up there" to help track the suspects, brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

While lawmakers weigh the pros and cons of drones, government surveillance cameras in public areas — parks, streets, buses, subways and rail stations — have become common, but not as much as cameras put in place by department stores, banks, theaters and other private companies. In Boston, surveillance camera footage from the Lord & Taylor department store was used to help identify the bombing suspects, The Boston Globe reported.

How many cameras?
"The use of surveillance cameras is growing exponentially," Jim Bueermann, former Redlands, Calif. police chief who is now president of the nonprofit Police Foundation, told NBC News. "There's all kinds of rationales for them being used in the private sector, whether it's loss prevention or for the safety of people. In the non-governmental world, cameras are everywhere."

Government cameras, he said, are "less prevalent" because of their cost.

Figuring out just how many police security cameras are already installed in the U.S. is not easy. While NBC News has cited an industry study saying that roughly 30 million surveillance cameras have been sold in the last decade, these include privately monitored systems. 

The American Civil Liberties Union determined that Chicago has 10,000 cameras, and this is considered the largest urban network. New York's planned security network around the new World Trade Center in lower Manhattan included 3,000 cameras, while NBC News has reported that Boston has just 300 cameras total.

(We asked the Department of Homeland Security for a full breakdown of government-operated video cameras throughout the nation, but were directed to individual state and local authorities.)

Bueermann, who retired in 2011, said Redlands, with a population of about 69,000, placed 120 police cameras around the city "in areas where we knew we had crime control challenges."

A camera was rolling outside a downtown bar when a fight broke out in late November 2011, and spilled onto the sidewalk. A man pulled a gun and shot another man dead, with the footage captured on camera, Bueermann said.

The shooter could not be identified from the video, he said, so police put it "out on the Web, and within a couple days, they had the guy," thanks to what Bueermann calls "crowd-sleuthing."

Google

A Google Street View image of a surveillance camera mounted on a Lord & Tailor department store. The camera reportedly helped investigators spot suspects in the Boston bombing.

Privacy concerns
While privacy and civil liberties groups have expressed concern over government video surveillance, those issues were a bit muted following last Monday's bombings.

"Instances like the tragic events at the Boston Marathon are good examples of how this technology can be used effectively in limited, well-defined circumstances," Amie Stepanovich, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Domestic Surveillance Project, told NBC News.

Stepanovich says the nonprofit digital rights group is less concerned with proliferation, and more worried about how long public videos are retained and who has access to them "in order to prevent their use in inappropriate circumstances."

Concerns about inappropriate circumstances led the ACLU of Massachusetts and National Lawyers Guild of Massachusetts to file a lawsuit in 2011 against the Boston Police Department to obtain documents showing that surveillance done between 2007 and 2010, including video footage, was done of protestors — not of criminals or terrorists.

The Redlands, Calif., police department has made a point about being "transparent" about what its cameras capture, Bueermann said. The public could "walk into our dispatch center, where the video monitoring stations were, sit down and watch how these video stations were being used," as well as "arbitrarily pick a time, date, camera and watch it."

'Ring of Steel'
Britain is the Western nation with the most government video cameras: 2 million or about one for every 32 people. In London — where officials are upping security for Sunday's London Marathon in the wake of what happened in Boston — the city's famous "ring of steel" network of government surveillance cameras will be in full force.

After the London riots of 2011, Scotland Yard had more than 100,000 hours of closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage to review.

"London is one of the most watched cities in the world with CCTV cameras everywhere from public transport to the major landmarks and small side streets," Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, a British civil liberties group, told NBC News. "Yet this did not prevent the riots of 2011, or the atrocities of 7/7," referring to the July 7, 2005 terrorist bombings on subway trains and a bus which killed 52 commuters.

While government surveillance cameras are a "tool that can be useful," he said, "ultimately the focus of law enforcement should be preventing crime. CCTV undermines everyone's privacy, while diverting resources from approaches that have a much higher impact on reducing crime and improving public safety, or is used by lazy officials as a way to placate the public who want something done to make their neighborhood safer."

Despite this, arguments for more surveillance cameras in U.S. cities are likely to multiply in the wake of Boston — and so are activists' calls for attention to the privacy concerns that come with them.

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Courtesy Beth Murphy / Principle Pictuers

A chicken vendor in Kabul, Afghanistan expresses sympathy for Bostonians after the marathon attack.

KABUL – After more than three decades of war, you would think Afghans would be desensitized to violent attacks like the Boston Marathon explosion. A Boston-based documentary filmmaker found just the opposite.

Instead of disregard, she found empathy among Kabul's residents for the three killed and more than 170 injured in the twin bomb blasts at the center of Boston 6,500 miles away. And she has the images to prove it. 

In the wake of the attacks, Beth Murphy awakened Tuesday morning in Afghanistan to a confounding text message from her husband.

"I thought at first I was re-reading my own message to him saying, 'Yes, I'm OK'," said Beth Murphy. She was referring to a text message she had sent her husband about a large-scale Taliban attack in western Afghanistan on April 3 that left more than 40 people dead.

"But it said, 'It's OK, we're safe.' So I did a double-take.

Courtesy Beth Murphy / Principle Pictures

A man with a donkey carriage in Kabul, Afghanistan relates to the victims of violence in Boston.

"I immediately went online before I even got back to him and saw what was happening in Boston, and [got] that overwhelming feeling of helplessness and sadness and feeling so far away. I thought, 'I'd really like to be home right now.'"

Murphy's husband, Dennis, and 5-year-old daughter were fine. But as a runner who had felt the joy and pain of crossing the finish line of the Boston Marathon, she felt compelled to do something.

In an effort to show solidarity with the city she calls home, Murphy set off for her day's work on a documentary project in Kabul armed with a simple sign she made that read: "To Boston From Kabul With Love."

Courtesy Beth Murphy / Principle Pictures

A bookseller in Kabul, Afghanistan expresses sympathy for Bostonians after the violent marathon attack.

Her initial plan was to photograph herself holding the sign and post it online but reactions from Afghans to the unfolding tragedy in Boston prompted a change of plans.

"As I started to talk with people here about what was happening, I saw the expressions on their faces change," she said. "They experience things like this here all the time. You might expect that they'd be desensitized to it or talk about it with a lack of compassion, but it was the exact opposite. There was this shared experience of pain and suffering, and the way people expressed that to me was really beautiful."

Those expressions led Murphy to ask permission to photograph them holding her sign – a spontaneous idea that quickly spread around the world and went viral on the Internet.

Murphy published a series of black and white photos rich with the color of everyday life here: a bookseller crouched before his wares, a chicken vendor with a trio of whole fryer birds hanging over his shoulder, a little girl's largely expressionless face starkly contrasted by those of her shrouded female relatives in the distance.

Courtesy Beth Murphy / Principle Pictures

Beth Murphy, a Boston-based documentary film maker set out on the streets of Kabul after the Boston Marathon attacks with a simple sign that read: "To Boston From Kabul With Love." She was overwhelmed with the expressions of sympathy by Afghans for Bostonians.

And the common thread binding the images and the people in them is a collective nod of empathy for the people of Boston.

"I've been really overwhelmed by the response," Murphy said. "It certainly wasn't anything that I anticipated. I'm happy that the pictures resonated because I think they speak to a common humanity that we all share."

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The Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night — after holing up in a boat in a suburban backyard following a bloody rampage that left a cop dead and a daylong manhunt that shut down the city.

The arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and the earlier death of his brother during a firefight with cops, ended five days of terror sowed by the double bombing at the marathon finish line, which killed three people, wounded 176 and left the city of Boston on edge.

"We got him," Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted.

"CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won," the Boston Police Department said on its Twitter account.

Cops cheered as the suspect was taken into custody in Watertown, Mass., just before 9 p.m. Later, the people of Watertown flooded the streets, cheering every passing police car and armored vehicle in an impromptu parade. Chants of "USA! USA!" broke out. In Boston, people danced in the streets outside Fenway Park.

Police cornered Tsarnaev -- a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chechen origin -- around 7 p.m., less than an hour after police lifted a stay-indoors order for the city and its suburbs.

A resident had gone outside to smoke and noticed a tarp on the boat was flapping, a relative told NBC News. When he went to investigate, he saw what looked like a curled-up person and bloody clothes.

The man "freaked out," ran into the house and called police, the relative said.

Thermal imaging from helicopters confirmed there was a person in the boat, officials said.

Over the course of two hours, several bursts of gunfire could be heard. The police exchanged fire with Tsarnaev, threw flash-bang grenades designed to disorient him and brought a negotiator to the scene as night fell, officials said.

Just before 9 p.m., the wounded Tsarnaev was taken into custody. "He sustained significant blood loss," a law enforcement official at the scene said.

As an ambulance took the suspect to Boston Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital — where he was in serious condition — people lining the streets applauded in joy and relief.

“We are so grateful to be here right now, so grateful to able to bring justice and closure to this case,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said at a briefing. “We’re exhausted, folks, but we have a victory here.”

President Barack Obama praised the outcomes but said many questions remained. Among them, he said: “Why did young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and our country resort to such violence?”

Authorities are also not sure of a motive or whether the suspects had help. Even as the standoff took place in Watertown, the FBI was taking three people in for questioning in New Bedford, Mass., who were believed to be former roommates of Tsarnaev.

"No one was detained. No one was arrested," a spokesman with the Massachusetts FBI office later said, once the two men and one woman questioned in connection with Tsarnaev were released.

But the president declared: “Whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not, cannot, prevail. Whatever they thought they could achieve, they’ve already failed.”

Tsarnaev will be questioned by a federal team called the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which includes officials of the FBI, CIA, and Defense Department, an Obama administration official said.

His apprehension capped a manhunt that had the city of Boston and its suburbs on total lockdown after the execution of a college campus patrol officer, a carjacking and the death of Tsarnaev's 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, during a 200-bullet confrontation with cops.

The overnight violence had triggered an extraordinary shutdown of transportation, schools and businesses in Boston and its suburbs, with police warning more than a million people to hunker down behind locked doors while SWAT teams fanned out and bomb squads collected seven homemade explosive devices.

The brothers' bloody last stand began about five hours after the FBI released surveillance photos of two "extremely dangerous" men suspected of planting two bombs near the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding 176.

Read more: Who are the brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing?

Tips about the identity of the suspects were still pouring in when the Tsarnaev brothers fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer Sean Collier, 26, in his vehicle at 10:20 p.m., law enforcement officials said.

The brothers then carjacked a Mercedes SUV, holding the driver captive for a half-hour while they tried to use his cash card to get money from three ATM's, a source said. At the first, they put in the wrong number; at the second, they took out $800 and at the third, they were told they had exceeded the withdrawal limit, the source said.

The carjacking victim was released unharmed at a gas station in Cambridge, sources said. He told police the brothers said they were the marathon bombers and had just killed a campus officer.

As the duo sped in his car toward Watertown, a police chase ensued and they tossed explosive devices out the window, officials said.

There was a long exchange of gunfire, according to Andrew Kitzenberg of Watertown, who took photos of the clash from his window and shared them via social media.

“They were also utilizing bombs, which sounded and looked like grenades, while engaging in the gunfight,” he told NBC News in an interview. “They also had what looked like a pressure-cooker bomb.

“I saw them light this bomb. They threw it towards the officers,” he said. “There was smoke that covered our entire street.”

A transit officer, identified as Richard H. Donahue, 33, was seriously injured during the pursuit. Authorities said he underwent surgery at Mount Auburn Hospital.

Kitzenberg said he saw the firefight end when Tamerlan Tsarnaev ran toward the officers and ultimately fell to the ground.

Tamerlan -- the man in the black hat from FBI photos released six hours earlier -- had an improvised explosive device strapped to his chest, law enforcement officials said.

Dzhokhar -- the brother who was wearing a white hat in the surveillance photos from the marathon -- got away when he drove the SUV through a line of police officers at the end of the street, Kitzenberg said.

Law enforcement sources told NBC News that blood found at the scene suggested Dzhokhar may have been wounded in the gun battle.

During the lockdown, subways and buses were shut down, Amtrak service to Boston was cut, and college campuses were closed. The Red Sox and Boston Bruins' home games were canceled.

Watertown was the epicenter of the search. Frightened residents were trapped inside as convoys of heavily armed officers and troops arrived by the hour and snipers perched on rooftops and in backyards.

When police finally gave residents the OK to venture outside, some cheered as they stepped outside, only to be swept back inside when shots rang out, and police converged on Tsarnaev's hideout.

An administration official said Tsarnaev was not read his Miranda rights and could be questioned without them for up to 48 hours under a special legal exception used in cases where public safety is at stake.

In a statement late Friday, The FBI said they interviewed Tamerlan in early 2011, following a tip from "a foreign government" that he was "a follower of radical Islam" and was preparing to leave the United States to join underground organizations.

The FBI said its interview two years ago of Tsarnaev and his family, along with checks of travel records, Internet activity and personal associations, "did not find any terrorism activity" at the time.

NBC News' Jonathan Dienst and Kasie Hunt contributed to this story.

Slideshow: Search for suspects in Boston Marathon bombings

Dominic Chavez / EPA

A tense night of police activity that left a university officer dead on campus just days after the Boston Marathon bombings and amid a hunt for two suspects caused officers to converge on a neighborhood outside Boston, where residents heard gunfire and explosions.

Launch slideshow

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‘Dedicated officer’ gunned down by Boston Marathon suspects at MIT

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Boston bombing spurs Senate debate on tighter immigration screening 

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Missing student's family staggered by false accusation

This story was originally published on Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:35 AM EDT

A young college police officer beloved by his colleagues has been identified by authorities as the latest casualty of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

Sean Collier, 27, of Somerville, Mass., was an officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was found shot in his vehicle on the campus late Thursday night as authorities pursued two brothers named as suspects in Monday's deadly marathon attack.

In a statement his family said they were "heartbroken."

"Our only solace is that Sean died bravely doing what he committed his life to — serving and protecting others," the statement read. "We are thankful for the outpouring of support and condolences offered by so many people. We are grieving his loss and ask that the media respect our privacy at this time."

MIT Police Chief John DiFava described Collier as "a dedicated officer who was extremely well liked by his colleagues and the MIT community" in a press release on Friday.

“Sean was one of these guys who really looked at police work as a calling,” DiFava said. “He was born to be a police officer.”

Collier sustained multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Middlesex District Attorney in Massachusetts. He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Collier crossed paths with the two suspects, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, at approximately 10:20 p.m. Thursday night, authorities said — roughly five hours after the FBI released surveillance photos of the two men they say planted twin bombs near the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding 176.

The suspects shot Collier on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass., following an altercation, according to authorities. They then allegedly carjacked a Mercedes SUV, holding the driver hostage for a half hour before freeing him at a gas station in Cambridge, according to sources.

On their way to the neighboring town of Watertown, they tossed explosive devices outside the SUV’s window, officials said. In a long exchange of gunfire between the suspects and authorities, a transit officer, Richard Donahue, was seriously injured.

The older brother, Tamerlan, died after the gun battle early Friday morning. The younger sibling, Dzhokhar, was captured at about 8:45 p.m. Friday following a large manhunt.

In a tragic coincidence, Collier and Donahue were "actually really good friends” who graduated from the same 26-member police academy class together three years ago, according to Milton, Mass., police officer Michael Delaney, who went to the academy with them.

"It's bizarre," Delaney said. "To take two of them out of there, it's a decent percentage." 

Delaney, 36, said both Collier and Donahue lived in Somerville. He remembered Collier as a "technology nerd."

"He was definitely the smartest kid in the class. He built us a website that the instructors didn't know about, but we used as a forum to communicate with each other outside of class." Delaney said. "Sometimes [the teachers] weren't so clear on the instructions. It helped ensure that no one screwed up."

Delaney said he heard on the news last night that an MIT officer had been shot, and he immediately texted Collier. When his friend didn't text back, he started to worry. Hours later, he found out from a Facebook group he and other police officers from the academy are in that Collier was shot. 

"I don't even think his family knew at that point," he said. "He was a really nice kid.” 

Collier, who wasn't married, had only been a patrol officer at MIT since Jan. 9, 2012, according to the university. He was part of the MIT Outing club, which went on ski and hiking trips.

Noel Morales, a senior at MIT, said Collier was a regular presence at student events, eager to get to know the students he was protecting, according to MIT's press release.

“He was always really fun to hang out with,” Morales said.

Mechanical engineering student Matthew Gilbertson, who knew Collier from the Outing Club, said he and Collier were in a car accident a few months ago while driving to the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

“Sean was the first out of our car to go check and see if the [other driver] was OK,” said Andrew Ding, according to MIT's press release. “It would be exceedingly difficult to imagine him not stepping up and doing the right thing when he had the chance, which unfortunately he did last night.”

Somerville Alderman Bob Trane said he had been bombarded with phone calls from people wanted to express their condolences about Collier. 

Miranda Leitsinger / NBC News

From left: Gary Grandonico, Max Jaffe, and Tomas Isman, all 22 and students at Tufts University, lived a few doors down from Collier but didn't know him. Asked why they were had hung a flag, Jaffe said: "In solidarity. We didn't really know the police officer who got killed this morning, but we wanted to show our support."

"We are all feeling the loss," Trane said from a block away from where Collier lived. "He was wise beyond his years. I was just impressed by how he was so mature for his age." 

Before working for MIT, Collier was an IT civilian employee at the Somerville police department.

MIT's president said his death reverberated throughout the entire university community. 

“The loss of Officer Collier is deeply painful to the entire MIT community,” L. Rafael Reif said, adding that it was "senseless and tragic."

The school's executive vice president and treasure, Israel Ruiz, said, “The MIT Police serve all of us at the Institute with great dignity, honor and dedication. Everyone here — those who knew Officer Collier, and those who did not — are devastated by the events that transpired on our campus last night. We will never forget the seriousness with which he took his role protecting MIT and those of us who consider it home.” 

Authorities cordoned off Collier's home with yellow tape on Friday morning.

Collier's family asked for donations to be made in his name to The Jimmy Fund, which supports the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. 

Related content:  

• Boston on lockdown during marathon manhunt 
• Profile of suspects in Boston Marathon bombing
• Photos from Bostonians locked down amid terror hunt 
• Timeline of terror hunt: From photo release to rolling shootout
• Slideshow: Bombings at Boston Marathon
• Tweeting police chatter creates confusion over Boston suspect

This story was originally published on Fri Apr 19, 2013 11:25 PM EDT