Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy who was one of three people killed in Monday’s bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, had just gotten ice cream with his family when the first blast erupted, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) told Yahoo! News.
The family tried to move to the road after the first bomb went off, out of fear of another blast near the buildings along Boylston Street, when the second explosion erupted.
Lynch, a candidate in the special U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, said that the family is “struggling as anybody in this situation would.” The boy’s mother, Denise Richard, and sister were severely injured, while his brother and father both emerged largely unscathed. Lynch corrected initial reports that indicated that Richard’s father, Bill, had participated in this year’s race. Although he participated in previous years, the father was only a specator this year. The brother and sister have not been identified.
The congressman said that Bill Richard was struck by one of the “ball bearings” from the bomb, but was not severely injured. Martin Richard’s older brother was uninjured, but “traumatized” by what he said.
There has been an outpouring of grief for the youngster following the marathon explosions. The word “Peace” was written in chalk on the sidewalk outside the family’s home in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.
