BOSTON — With a bagpiper playing “The Bells of Dunblane” and a few runners looking on, families of those killed in the Boston Marathon bombing marked the 10th anniversary of the tragedy early Saturday by slowly walking together to the memorial sites near the finish line and laying wreaths.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who was making her first run for City Council when the bombing happened, joined the somber procession along with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. At each memorial site — marked with three stone pillars — they stood with the families in silence.
Thousands, including many marathon runners in their blue and yellow windbreakers and several former Boston Red Sox players, came out to a second ceremony Saturday afternoon near the finish line. Church bells were rung, and the Boston City Singers and Boston Pops performed “Amazing Grace” and “America the Beautiful.”
The 127th running of the Boston Marathon takes place Monday.
“The day never leaves me,” said Jennifer Black, 71, a real estate agent from Loveland, Ohio, who was watching the morning procession and recounted how her race in 2013 was cut short due to the bombing. She is back in Boston to run this year.
“So much loss, so much pain all because of hate,” she continued, tears streaming down her face. “We have to stand up for people. We have to look out for each other, and we have to pray for these families every day.”
Standing next to Black, Karen Russell of Boston said she felt it was important to witness the procession, especially on the 10th anniversary.
“The families are still suffering even though we’ve gone on,” Russell said. “There are a lot of people that got hurt that day, and that pain will never go away. … I feel it’s important to be here to let them know we still care.”
Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two pressure-cooker bombs went off at the marathon finish line. Among the dead were Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Mass.; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family.
During a tense, four-day manhunt that paralyzed the city, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier was shot dead in his car. Boston Police Officer Dennis Simmonds also died a year after he was wounded in a confrontation with the bombers.
Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother had died. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, had been in a gunfight with police and was run over by his brother as he fled.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death. A federal appeals court is considering his latest bid to avoid execution. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard arguments in January in the 29-year-old’s case but has yet to issue a ruling.
The appeals court initially threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence in 2020, saying the trial judge did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases. But the U.S. Supreme Court revived it last year.
The 1st Circuit Court is now weighing whether other issues that weren’t considered by the Supreme Court require the death sentence to be tossed a second time.
The bombing not only unified Boston — “Boston Strong” became the city’s rallying cry — but inspired many in the running community and prompted scores of those impacted by the terror attack to run the marathon. At the memorial sites Saturday, several flower pots with the words “Boston Strong” held what have become known as Marathon daffodils.
“It really galvanized and showed our sport’s and our city’s resiliency, our desire together to continue even better and to enhance the Boston Marathon,” Boston Athletic Association President and CEO Jack Fleming said.
On Saturday, the focus was mostly on remembering victims and survivors of the bombing but also, as Wu said, “really making sure this was a moment to focus on where the city and our communities, our families are headed in the future.”
That sentiment will be reflected in what has become known as “One Boston Day,” when acts of kindness and service take place to honor victims, survivors and first responders. This year, nearly two dozen community service projects are happening, including a shoe drive and several food drives, blood drives and neighborhood cleanups.
