With morning, I wanted to bring you up to date on where the Boston story stands as of this moment.
The central point is that there is still no clear explanation of who was behind the attack or why it happened. It now appears clear that, despite yesterday’s reports, there were no additional explosive devices besides the two that exploded near the finish line at the marathon, the two we knew about from the first moment. The initial report of a further bombing at JFK Library seems to have been ruled out definitively as have various reports of other unexploded devices found in the vicinity of the attack.
Three people are confirmed dead in the attack, one of whom was an 8 year old boy. More than 140 were wounded.
Late last night federal and local authorities searched an apartment in Revere, Massachusetts (just outside Boston) but left the scene without talking to reporters. Reports this morning say that this search was tied to the investigation of a 20 year old Saudi man on a student visa who was injured in the attack. A second Saudi man was apparently questioned at the apartment as well. This appears to be the same man about whom there was so many contradictory reports yesterday. For the moment it seems that the Saudi is being investigated by police and federal agents but they do not seem ready to identify him as a suspect.
All the signs from law enforcement suggest they do not yet have a clear theory of the crime.
At this point, no individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The FBI is scheduled to hold a press conference at 9:30 AM this morning. We’re publishing running updates on this story here.
