Case Study #2

4/1/16
Matt Hines
When tragedy strikes it can leave countless people distraught. There are always many people
who suffer from the negative effects, including not only those directly involved but also their
families, friends, and loved ones. So when something so terrible happens that it effects the entire
nation, there are hundreds of millions of people who are left in fear, anger, and wonder. In the
case of the Boston Marathon Bombing, only one city was targeted, but it was one of the most
significant cities in the country. On April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded at the
Boston Marathon. This event is attended by over 500,000 spectators and has over 30,000
participants, meaning it is an extremely populated occurrence. Therefore, if something tragic
were to occur, like the bombings in 2013, it would have an enormous impact on lots of families
throughout the nation.
Luckily for all US citizens the police and FBI were able to track down the culprits using the
video surveillance tapes from throughout the day. They also asked people from the scene if they
saw anything suspicious, and were able to create a pretty accurate sketch of one of the two men
based on one man who lost both legs in the accidents description. They ended up figuring out
that there were two men responsible, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. These two men
happened to be part of an Islamic mosque in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that coincidentally has
ties to 8 terrorists already. One of these men, Ahmad Abousamra, was the top propagandist for
ISIS. Although the leaders of the mosque deny any ties to terrorist beliefs and claim they were
not responsible for what their members did outside of the mosque itself, their large amount of

past terrorist instances strongly suggests otherwise. Its hard to believe they werent teaching any
terrorist or extremist ways when there have now been 10 terrorists that have come from this one
place alone.
As I mentioned earlier, Ahmad Abousamra was a lead propagandist for the terrorist group
ISIS. ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. They follow extreme Islamic beliefs and
have developed themselves into a major militant group, causing concern in various other parts of
the world including the United States. The group began as the Iraqi chapter of Al Qaeda,
although internal disagreements caused them to break into two different groups; one keeping the
same name (Al Qaeda), and the other would know be known as ISIS. They currently compete
against one another in trying to recruit and influence the people of their country to join their
cause. ISIS practices radical and extremist beliefs that are part of the reason they instill fear in so
many people outside of them. They are currently led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and have only
gotten worse as time passes. They now own a very large area in Iraq and Syria and enforce their
terrible ways on the people; they execute prisoners of war, enslave innocent minorities, and
abuse and rape helpless women. Their punishments for day-today crimes are unfair and extreme
as well; punishments for crimes can result in amputation, stoning, or even crucifixion. Their goal
is surprisingly not to be as violent as possible, but to be a pure Islamic state. Despite referring
to themselves as such, the vast majority of Muslims in the world are strongly against what they
do. ISIS sees every person as either one or the other: either youre fighting with their cause, or
youre against them. The group is filled with corruption because not only are their practices
unjust and extreme, but many of the members in the group only joined because of coercion,
economic struggles, or misguided teachings. There are many members that dont believe in what
they do but are already in too deep or are afraid that if they back out now theyll be killed in no

time. ISIS is a very fearsome group and if they arent stopped soon then perhaps someone in the
world will be forced to stop them.
Since there have been multiple terrorists in the Cambridge mosque that have ties to
ISIS, many people believe that the Tsarnaev brothers were related to them as well.
Despite the leaders of the mosque denying that theyd ever teach such beliefs, its hard to
deny it when their members are consistently partaking in terrorist acts. Therefore its
generally believed that ISIS did in fact play a role in the Boston Marathon Bombings.
What they did exactly is unclear, but they most likely had a strong influence on the
Tsarnaevs.
The response to the bombings on April 15, 2013 was actually very effective. Since it
was such a huge event, there were plenty of officers already on the scene, just in case.
When the explosions first went off, chaos struck immediately. With half a million people
at the event, things were inevitable going to get a bit out of control. People began
running, screaming, and panicking, although the officers on the scene did their best to
ensure everyones safety. They made evacuation plans and did their best to get everyone
to safety as quickly as possible. There were evacuation vehicles and evacuation routes for
people to exit on to prevent any further harm or death. Besides the bombs going off there
were no other injuries after and everyone who wasnt harmed in the explosion ended up
making it out okay. The city of Boston was put on immediate lockdown to find who did it
and keep anyone from entering or exiting that wasnt supposed to. Everyone was made
aware they had to be extra cautious and remain in a safe place until further notice. It was
a long, chaotic process removing so many people from the area all at once, but the
officers did what they could and made sure they were protecting the people. Immediately

after news broke of what happened, hundreds of other officers, even ones from hours
away and ones that were off duty that day came to help. They wanted to make sure they
could save as many lives as possible and prevent any further damage from being done.
Ambulances were brought in to take anyone who was harmed in the incident and many
officers continued to patrol and search the area for any suspects or further threats. Their
emergency management response was effective because they were able to safely escort
everyone out of the area and eventually track down who was responsible.
Despite doing so much right at the scene of the crime, the actions that followed could
have used some improvement. Once they figured out that the Tsarnaev brothers were
responsible, a mass search was issued. There were hundreds of thousands of officers and
officials now searching for these two men, and when they finally cornered them it was
their response that needed improvement. They tracked Dzhokhar Tsarnaev down to
someones back yard hidden under a boat cover. The owner of the boat called 911 to
report that he saw suspicious movement inside his boat and was afraid to approach it,
rightfully so. When police arrived at the scene they quickly realized that it was their man;
but what happened next is where they made the mistakes. From the hundred-plus officers
that were now surrounding the area, there were over 200 shots fired. There were officers
form 116 federal, state and local agencies on the scene, so the situation should have been
handled more effectively. Many of these officers came to the scene without being ordered
to do so, which probably only helped add more chaos to an already extreme situation. It
was reported that officers were not assigned specific roles at the scene and were just told
to go there and capture their criminal. Had they each had specific orders I believe it
would have been a more effective mission, and wouldnt have resulted in so many

misfires and even an officer, Richard Donohue Jr., suffering a severe injury in the leg. It
was reported that one officer saw suspicious movement that caused him to fire, resulting
in many of his fellow officers unloading rounds at the boat. This caused dangerous
crossfire because there were so many officers around the area, so now they were even
putting each other at risk. When this whole hiding in the boat situation came to an end
there were no civilians harmed and just one officer who suffered an injury. They were
able to get to and take Dzhokhar Tsarnaev into custody, despite having multiple gunshot
wounds in his body. He was brought in and would be sentenced to trial, fighting 30
different charges, 17 of which constitute the death penalty. He was found guilty and was
eventually killed by lethal injection after finally apologizing to the families he harmed.
As far as recommendations for potential future terrorist attacks, I would recommend
taking extra precautions. The Boston Marathon is such a great event that they would
never expect something like this to happen, so I understand why the security was a little
lenient. However, because of this and the potential future threat it poses, I would increase
security at an event this enormous and try to get something like a metal detector or
weapon check at the event. This way there wont be a threat because no one would be
able to pass through security with a bomb in a backpack or a gun hidden in a sweatshirt
or something similar. Another recommendation I would make would be to handle the
situation following the original attack much better. In my opinion it was handled a bit
sloppy after the shootout at MIT, since they not only let one of the brothers escape and
off their radar, but also got a police officer shot and killed. They should handle this with
major precaution, which they did, but I would just take a few extra minor steps just to
really ensure nothing like this happens again.

Sources:
-After Action Report for the Response to the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings. N.p.: Massachusetts
Emergency Management Agency, n.d. Mass.gov. Massachusetts Emergency Management
Agency. Web.
-Agee, B. Christopher. "A New Report Just Exposed A Shocking Link Between The Boston Bombers
And ISIS, And It Is Scary." Western Journalism. N.p., 08 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
-Balko, Radley. "Was the Police Response to the Boston Bombing Really Appropriate?" Washington
Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
-"Bombing Response Was great Success, but Problem Areas Cited."Www.BostonGlobe.com. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
-Library, CNN. "Boston Marathon Terror Attack Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 01
Apr. 2016.
-"Statistics - Boston Athletic Association - BAA.org." Statistics - Boston Athletic Association BAA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.