Second Bombing Suspect Caught Alive – Will Endless Speculations Stop Now?

After a day-long manhunt that shut down the Boston area, the second suspect in the Marathon bombings was caught. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding in a boat just outside the area where police had been conducting door-to-door searches all day.

Authorities virtually shut down the city. Residents were holed up in their houses all day. Mass transit was suspended. Stores were closed. It was only after this lock-down was lifted that the authorities got the help from the public that they needed to find the 19-year-old suspect.

A man stepped into his backyard for some fresh air after the stay-in request was lifted. He noticed that his boat – which he had securely winterized – was no longer secure. A tarp that he had strapped firmly to the boat that had not been disturbed in any of the storms of the season was flapping in the wind. This gave him cause enough to check up on it. It was then that he saw blood and the body of the suspect. He immediately alerted authorities.

What looked like hundreds of officers descended on the area. We heard gunfire. We learned he wouldn’t be read his Miranda rights. He was finally apprehended. He is now in an area hospital, his condition listed as “serious.”

What  a nightmare for the Boston area and those who had already gone through the horror of the day of the Marathon. Having lived in large cities for pretty much my entire life, I truly cannot imagine what having an entire metropolitan area “shut down” would be like. I imagine the endless unfounded speculation of reporters competing to keep viewers transfixed to their screens didn’t help much.

The unverified reporting was dizzying. Were the brothers muslims? Was their family involved? Were there other suspects working with them? It seems every anchor and interviewee had their own theory about what was going on with the two brothers – theories that were not based in fact and totally confusing and dumbfounding. I think I finally turned the television off when they started to try and make some connection with the fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became a U.S. citizen on 9/11 last year. Does anyone actually believe that you can choose the date that this happens? That’s not how it works. The period of time between sending in the completed application and the interview to become a U.S. Citizen can vary from five months to more than two years.

I’m glad this manhunt is over. Mainly because the residents of Boston don’t have to be afraid to walk out of their homes anymore, but also because I can’t imagine what this kind of constant news exposure does to survivors of an attack like the one that occurred on Monday. When did the “news” become endless speculation? When did every on-air anchor become an expert in criminology?

I hope Tzarnaev regains consciousness so the families affected by this horrible tragedy can get the answers they deserve – and we can all be spared the speculations about what his motives were.

(photo: Twitter)