Superintendent and Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police Timothy P. Alben speaks to reporters about the status of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings in Watertown, Massachusetts April 19, 2013.JESSICA RINALDI/Reuters
Statement at FBI press conference
In a media conference Friday officials including the Mayor of Boston, gave an update on the investigation of Monday's attack on the Boston Marathon. This is a transcription of their statements:
Colonel Timothy Alben, head of the State Police:
Thank you governor. Good afternoon. I certainly want to thank all of you for your patience. I know you are all tired. We certainly are as well but we remain committed to this. We do not have an apprehension of our suspect this afternoon but we will have one. We are committed to that. I want the neighbourhood here in Watertown to know that we went through about 20 streets here door to door with our tactical team. We knocked on doors to ensure that everyone was safe in their homes and that they saw police on streets.
We did limited searches on those homes to render them safe. We've also followed a number of leads this afternoon that have taken us in various places in eastern Massachusetts and none of those leads have been fruitful to this point. There is much left to be done, including ballistics and forensics work that will be concluding in Boston in the next few days. We also have a scene up here, forensic scene, where we had some exploded and unexploded coordinates there that were made safe and removed over the course of the afternoon. That is still ongoing but should be completed shortly. We are going to draw back our tactical teams but the state police will be providing additional patrols to the town of Watertown over the next two to three days.
For the neighbours and the citizens of this community we are going to have for the chief an additional 10 state police patrols augmenting the Watertown police in those neighbourhoods, three shifts a day through Monday.
So again I want to emphasize this is a complicated in investigation that is being led by the FBI. Our presence here today was about the safety of the people in the community and we are confident that we did that to the best of our ability. Unfortunately we do not have a positive result as of this point. But for the sake of everyone, that were hurt or killed during the marathon or those police officers that lost their life or were seriously injured we are committed to seeing a conclusion to this case. Thank you.
Gov. Deval Patrick:
Thank you Kernel. In light of the status of the investigation here in Watertown and the development over the course of the day. The stay indoors request is lifted. The T is open effective immediately, the MBTA, effective immediately. We are asking the public to remain vigilant. If you are out, continue to be alert of suspicious activity, unaccompanied or unattended packages and backpacks and so on. Remember there is still a very, very dangerous individual at large but we feel confident based on what we know and the status of the investigation right now that to that extent we can return to living our lives. Again, in the areas where the stay indoors request has been in effect, that request has been lifted but remain vigilant.
Thomas Menino, Mayor of Boston:
Thank you comrade. Let me just say to the public out there thank you for your cooperation for the last several hours. Standby has been very helpful to us…as we go to work on this investigation. Yes we do not have an individual arrested yet, brought to justice, but at least we have a lot of leads out there. I would ask the public to continue to cooperate with us. Boston will stand tall, will never stand down. (Indecipherable) Thank you for your cooperation. Thank you to the business community for working with us over the last several hours.
Can we have a round of applause for them. Because together we get through this crisis. Thank you.
Ed Deveau, Watertown Police Chief:
Again my message is to the community of Watertown. It's a little different what we're going to do here. You are going to see saturated patrols as the kernel said. State police will be out local communities are going to support us. So were going to see a big presence. We have done a very thorough search of the 20 block interior. Unfortunately as you know we did not have any results but we are going to continue to move forward as a community. I can't thank the Watertown community enough for what you've done, your strength, but we need it to continue. As you heard, the crime scene is not done yet. That will not be collapsed for another few hours at least. Please go about your business. I know there is a lot of events in Watertown tomorrow, and we are going to have them. But you are going to see a big police presence as we do that. Thank you and please say a prayer for those police officers. Thank you.
Transcription by Katrina Pyne