Various Rumors about the Terrorist Attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon
Summary of eRumor:
There are various rumors surrounding the events of the bombing at the April 15, 2013 Marathon in Boston, MA. At least three people have been killed and 140 people have been injured as a result of two bombs that exploded near the finish line.
The Truth:
Updated April 19,2013:
Suspects Identified. One killed after shoot out with police.
According to an April 19, 2013 article by the Associated Press the two bombing suspects were “identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers from a Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade.”
A search on the Internet found an online profile for Dzhokhar (aka: Djohar) Tsarnaev showing his religious world view as Islam.
Friday morning police continued to conduct a door to door search in the manhunt for the suspects in the Watertown, a town just east of Boston where the bombing took place. The article said that thousands of officers took place in the man hunt and 26 year old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who the FBI referred to as Suspect No. 1 was killed. “His 19-year-old brother – dubbed Suspect No. 2 and seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the images from Monday’s deadly bombing at the marathon finish line – escaped.”
The city of Boston has suspended all mass transit and warned residents of the city and surrounding suburbs to stay indoors as the manhunt continues to bring the suspect to justice.
At 08:45PM Eastern Time Boston Police announced that bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was in custody. The injured prisoner was taken to the hospital for treatment and was listed in serious condition. This according to an April 19, 2013 timeline by ABC News.
Update April 18, 2013:
Photos and videos on the Internet of the bombing suspects-Truth! & Fiction!
Since the bombing, conflicting information and images describing the bombing suspects have gone viral on the Internet. One photo even made headline news but it turned out that the two men in the photo are not suspected of any terrorist activity. According to an April 18, 2013 article in the New York Post, “the two men whose photos were being circulated internally among police have been cleared as authorities determined that neither man had any role in the Boston Marathon bombings.”
Two men cleared by investigators.
On April, 18, 2013 the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released images two persons suspected in the bombing. Below are the official images released by the FBI:
OFFICIAL FBI PHOTOS OF SUSPECTS:
Official images of suspects released by the FBIe FBI
Click image for higher resolution
Video of bombing suspects posted on YouTube by the FBI
The FBI has asked the pubic that if anyone has visual images, video, and/or details regarding the explosions along the Boston Marathon route and elsewhere to submit them on on their local Boston Office website: https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov/. They have a toll free number to call with tips:
Earlier Boston Marathon Bombing Rumors
According to an April 16, 2013 article by CCN several hoax rumors have gone viral on the World Wide Web in the aftermath of the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.
Here is a synopsis:
Man was ready to propose to his girlfriend at the Marathon but she was killed in the bombing – Fiction!
The photo to the right was taken in Boston after the bombing but the description of it that is travelling in social media was inaccurate, according to CNN. The photo appeared in the Boston Globe and the caption described the scene as an injured woman on the finish line being comforted by a man.
Young Girl Running for the Sandy Hook Victims Killed in Boston Marathon Bombing – Fiction!
A photo a young girl allegedly running for the marathon in remembrance of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting has also been circulating the Internet. CNN found out that bib on the runner was for the Joe Cassella 5K in Great Falls, Virginia and that the young girl did not meet the age requirement to run in the Boston Marathon.
Race organizers will donate for retweets – Fiction!
Phoney Boston Marathon Accounts appeared to say that the race organizers would donated $1 for every post Re-tweeting “#BostonMarathon victims #PrayForBoston.” on Twitter, according to the CNN article.
Authorities shut down cell phone service- Fiction!
Reports that the City of Boston ordered the shut down of cellular telephone services to prevent the accidental detonation of unexploded bombs found on the scene were false. The incident caused a flooding of cell phone calls, which overwhelmed the network, according to the CNN article.
Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung killed by explosion at Boston Marathon- Fiction!
This photograph is circulating on Facebook with the caption, “Whoa! Government is slipping up! This lady supposedly died in the elementary school shooting & apparently died again in the bombing at Boston. They have to be smarter than this, right?”
Dawn Hochsprung was shot and killed by Adam Lanza on December 14, 2012 during his killing spree at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The image appeared to have been digitally manipulated to trick people into thinking it was related to the Boston incident. The caption on the right incorrectly showed Hochsprung’s first name as Donna.
Posted 4/16/13 Updated 4/18/13