in the boston marathon, the moment when boylston street has the largest number of runners approaching the finish line at once usually occurs about two hours after the winner crosses the finish line. today when boylston street was most crowded with runners, two hours after lelisa desisa of ethiopia won the marathon, this happened.

[ bleep ]. >> hey! there's got to be people hurt out there. we need help! >> oh, my god. oh, my god. oh, my god. my god. oh, my god.

>> the people who were injured and killed by those two explosions about 15 seconds apart were watching runners who started the race 26.2 miles down the road in a suburb of boston. hoppington's population tripled this morning as it always does on marathon day. this morning, 26,839 runners descended on hoppington along with their families, friends, spectators and marathon support staff. when they made it to the town of newtown, they encountered what, until today, has been considered the worst stretch of the mayor anthony. it's known as heartbreak hill. today, hearts were broken at the spot that is normally the scene of joyous triumph of marathoners crossing the finish line. we are going to a press

conference live at massachusetts general hospital in boston. >> there's a variety of injuries. probably the most common serious injuries are combined lower extremity injuries combined meaning bone injuries, soft tissue injuries, vascular injuries. >> are you seeing shrapnel-type injuries? >> yep. >> can you describe it? >> we are seeing a lot of shrapnel injuries, many of those involve predominantly lower extremities but they can affect the entire body. >> doctor, please describe the scene when people were coming in. can you describe that? >> well, the first patient that came in was probably the most severe. we had three of themost critically ill patients come in in the first 15 minutes. at that point, we know if that was the tip of the iceberg or if

it was the tip of a huge iceberg. so, i think actually everybody prepared for the situation. the hospital activated its command situation in about five to ten minutes. >> what are the ages of the victims you're seeing? >> i don't have that information precisely. >> we have performed several. >> how many? >> i can't tell you >> doctor, can you tell us how many patients you have treated? have any of them been able to communicate with you what they saw, what they witnessed? are they in a condition to speak with you? >> a number of patients have been able to talk. most of them, we kept it business only. in terms of what affects their clinical condition, precisely. you probably know more than i do about what happened at the scene at this point. whee another question

[ inaudible question ] >> the hospital treated 29. i have operated on six so far. >> can you say if any were children? >> five patients were unidentified. have you identified all the patients? >> i don't know if we have identified everyone. i know that some of the patients came in identified. >> how many remain in the hospital? >> i don't know. >> there have been a lot of questions about family members trying to reach their loved ones and the difficulty they may be having. do you have indication if they have been able to reach their loved ones or family at mass general at least? >> some of them we have, some of them we haven't. some that were unidentified -- it took at least a couple of hours. some that i personally treated -- i don't know 29 total or particularly the 11 -- i'm sorry eight in critical condition -- >> were they runners or spectators? >> again, i'm not sure. i have not taken care of any runners. of the 29 people --

>> what type of shrapnel are you seeing? anything unusual or anything in particular? >> no, there's a lot of small metal debris. some people have asked already about weather it's bbs or parts of bombs. i don't think we are able to say whether they're small parts of metal placed there intentionally or part of the environment. >> do you think the people that are in critical condition, they are okay? >> they are not looking okay. it's not what critical means. so, it's really too early to say. to say how everybody is. >> how long will this process continue critical? within hours or -- >> a number of patients require repeat operations tomorrow and serial operations over the next couple days. a lot of the injuries are combined. they are combined with soft tissue and vascular injuries. they have to be approached in a

stepwise factor. >> how about eardrums? are you seeing shattered eardrums in close proximity to the explosion? >> we have seen at least one. it's not uncommon with a blast injury. one of the things on my to-do list for tonight for me and the residents is go back around, it can be hard sometimes particularly if people are being rushed to the operate room to get a good cham and repeat all the exams. >> can you give us more information on the hometown? >> no, i'm sorry, i can't. impossible to give that. >> can you talk about the amputees again? you have how many here? i can't tell you precisely right now. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't know. >> can you give us an age range? >> there were no pediatric patients. here we define that as somebody under 18. that's all i can tell you. the oldest person is 71, i think that's the oldest.

>> you are a surgeon, but still -- >> it's depressing. we take care of accidents all the time. it's just depressing. >> in the course of your career, have you seen anything like this? >> the injuries are not otherworldly. i've never seen this volume of patients come this quickly this type of injury. >> can you elaborate what you mean by otherworldly. it appears these devices may have been i.e.d.-like in nature. you say injuries not otherworldly. what do you mean? >> any traumatic amputation is a gruesome injury but it's something we see in daily life even outside of this event. >> doctor was this tough on you? i know you are trained for it, but did you think much about what was happening or does it kick in automatically? >> this is work. when this happens, we go to work.

>> you talked about injuries. on a broad scale, but the eight in the critical condition, can you elaborate on their injuries? >> i'm hesitant to give a rundown on each of the eight one by one by one. again, the dominant injury have been combined complex lower exempt injuries involving blood vessels, bone. >> do many of your colleagues have combat medical experience? >> one of my partners has been deployed to iraq and afghanistan. i think he's got the most experience with these type of injuries. he's been here most of the night. but, i haven't talked to him directly about that. >> some of the patients mental -- you said it's been business for the most part, but did any of them say anything that gave you some sense of what this experience was like for them? >> no. i mean people, they want help in

this kind of situation. my experience today is not unlike similar circumstances. people, they're pretty brarvegs you know. it's a terrible thing and you do -- most patients' attitude is do what you have to do to try to make it better. >> -- >> some conscious, some unconscious. >> can you describe a little bit about the scene when it first happened? >> we got a series of patients on stretchers, actually none of them with the first wave. even some tlap very seriously injured. the first few had breathing tubes so they were able to talk. when it kicked off the most severe injuries were the lower extremity injuries.

we had three in the first five or ten minutes. it became clear to us that -- again, like i said, the injuries individually are not -- >> there were six. now there are eight. what changed? >> i'm not sure how they were classified or when. certainly, there's some patients who may have not been classified the minute they hit the door. their status may have changed. >> doctor, earlier your colleague mentioned you were all trained by israeli disaster first responders. how did that help today? >> i was not trained by israeli disaster responders. >> this is the emergency department. he's a trauma surgeon.

>> we heard governor deval patrick say he's -- we've heard reports of even runners called the hospital offered to donate blood as soon as they could. have you seen any of those bright signs in all of this. >> what i can say, certainly within the hospital, everybody rose to the occasion. we've had people from out of town who somehow managed to get here in hours from the nursing staff, the ancillary staff, the operating room staff to specialists and all of the different disciplines. we've had as much or more manpower or people power than we could use. i can't speak to the larger scenario although i was asked by the hospital anyone willing to donate blood specifically, it's appreciated. right now, we are okay. if they cannot forget that sentiment over the coming days to weeks, we are going to use a lot of blood with this incident

and it will need to be replenished. >> doctor, were the patients treated for biohazard residue? how does that process work? >> no, to my knowledge they have not been and they were not quarantined in the emergency departments. >> earlier we had heard that all nonelective surgeries were being put on hold because of the number of patients coming in. what's the sort of status where things are now in terms of the hospital? >> actually, i can't tell you that. i would be surprised if all non-elective surgeries. i can tell that you for our general and emergency service, we did cancel our scheduled cases for tomorrow and we're going to have to just sort them out over the next several days. >> did you saw all victims have been identified? >> no, i didn't. i don't have that information. >> do you know if all have reached their family members? >> again, i don't know. >> can we expect further information tonight? will we get further updates?

>> tomorrow probably. >> tomorrow. i'm looking at mike from our public affairs office. the next press conference will be tomorrow. >> do you know if everyone has identified? >> we'll let you know, public affairs is on call 24/7. >> do you know if everybody's been identified and connected with their families? i don't know that yet. >> doctor, how much is this a trying night for you and your colleagues? how much of a trying day and night has this been for you? >> it's been a busy day. >> how many hours of surgeries did you do if you add them all up? >> approximately. >> pardon me? >> if you added up the hours of surgery, you said you did six surgeries. >> i started doing surgery at 8:00 a.m., and i pretty much stopped to come talk to you. actually, i have to go back. >> can you spell your last name for us? >> it's f-a-g-e-n-h-o-l-z-and first name is peter, p-e-t-e-r-. >> can you identify how we should identify you?

>> i'm a trauma surgeon. >> thanks very much. >> that was dr. peter fagenholz at massachusetts general hospital, trauma surgeon reporting that they have 29 patients at mass general tonight as a result of the bombing today on boylston street in boston. he, himself, who is a trauma surgeon, dr. fagenholz has operated on six of them. he said no one at the hospital, admitted to mass general is under the age of 18. the oldest patient he knows to have been admitted to mass general is 71 years old. dr. fagenholz has been working all day on surgery and was working all day on surgeries and operations before this event occurred and has been now continuing with that. joining us now is kassidy quinn bretlor in newton, massachusetts.

she witnessed today's attacks. cassidy, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you for having me. i wish it was under better circumstances, obviously, but thank you. >> were you there as a spectator of the marathon? >> i was. i worked downtown and a co-worker was running in the marathon. i went down to the finish line to try to see him. i actually realized a couple minutes before the explosions happened that he had already finished the race a few minutes before. so i went about 30 feet back behind the finish line to get a perfect picture of the finish line as any photographer wants to do. before i got to take the picture, i heard the loudest noise i've ever heard in my entire life. >> you were on boylston? on which side of the sidewalk? were you on the north side or the south side? >> i was on the opposite of the bleachers for the viewers. >> okay.

so you were just east of exeter street or do you know where you were? >> yeah, i was on boylston street, about 30 feet east, i would say of the finish line. >> so, right there. did you hear -- what was your experience of the two explosions? >> well, the first explosion happened. when the first explosion happened, i didn't know what to think. obviously, you assume there's only going to be one. you don't assume there's going to be one in the first place and then you hear one happen and the grounds shook. i mean, my legs didn't stop shaking for probably about two hours after that happened. then you hear the second explosion. you haven't processed the first explosion and the second one happens 15 seconds later. as you mentioned. then you realize everything going through my head, this is an attack, it's not an accident. this does not happen two can't happen within 15 seconds, what do i do? where do i go? how do i contact my family?

is everybody okay. just craziness. >> what is the first thing you did? >> i was by myself. obviously, i was surrounded by thousand of other spectators and runners, but i didn't know anyone that was around me so i didn't know what to do. i first followed other people into a little -- after the second explosion, everybody started to go inside everywhere just to try to escape whatever it was that was happening. i went into a little atm bank area to hide out for five minutes and try to compose myself and started trying to text my family and boyfriend and tell everybody that i am okay and actually ended up tweeting and posting on facebook which it's crazy in all the social media since all the phone lines were shut down, that is the main way people reached their loved ones and told them i am okay. >> did you see injured people? >> i did. once i was inside, i got inside the little bank area, i got time to actually process, okay, what

is going on and what is going on around me and outside. i looked outside and saw so much smoke enveloping everybody and actually saw two people get carried by other people because they couldn't walk anymore. i don't know. i'm hoping those people are okay. they are probably some of the people in the hospital right now. i saw them get carried in front of me, covered in blood. parts of their bodies were blown up and not the way you ever want to see a human being look, ever in your life. >> cassidy, how did you get out of the area? was the -- because they shut down the "t" at some point in that area, didn't they? >> yeah, so after i was inside the atm area for about five minutes, some policemen came in and said you've got get out of here. you've got to get out of here. they didn't tell us where to go, just get out. get out of the copley square area. i walked a block over to new bury street, was trying to gain

my composure and call the people i hadn't been able to get in touch with. luckily my office building is a few blocks away. i started walking back to my office. of course, i'm a video blogger, so the vlogger in me thought i ought to get video of this. i posted to youtube and started getting footage and taking pictures. if i'm here and i am, thank goodness, i am okay and alive to tell the story and take video of this, i might as well get as much as i can, then get to safety. >> cassidy quinn brettler, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you, guys. president obama spoke from the white house briefing room just after 6:00 tonight, about three hours after the explosions. >> i've directed the full resources of the federal government to help state and local authorities protect our people, increase security around the united states as necessary and investigate what happened.

i just want to reiterate, we will find out who did this, and we would hold them accountable. >> msnbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. kristen, what is the latest reaction from the white house and the white house staff? >> reporter: well, senior administration officials say the president will continue to be updated on this situation throughout the evening. right now, they are approaching this as an act of terror. i'll read the latest statement. coming out of the white house, it says "any event with multiple explosive devices as this appears to be is clearly an act of terror and will be approached as an act of terror. however, we don't yet know who carried out this attack and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was carried out a terrorist group foreign or domestic. you heard president obama make the point that whoever carried

this out will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. the president was made aware of this at about 3:00 this afternoon. he reached out to boston mayor tom menino not only to extend his thoughts and prayers but to make it very clear that the federal government will put its full resources behind figuring out who did this and also helping the community of boston heal. he's been briefed throughout the day by robert muller, the director of the fbi as well as dhs secretary, janet napolitano. he will continue to get updates throughout the evening. but again, there's not a whole lot of information in terms of who actually carried out this attack. some frustration here this evening because they don't know the if this was carried out by someone here on u.s. soil or someone abroad. so, that is really the key question they are looking into. again, president obama is continuing to monitor the situation into the evening. lawrence? >> kristen welker, thank you. joining me now with the latest

on that investigation, nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. >> lawrence, good evening. investigators know for certain that this attack involved two bombs. but what they don't know the is whether there were any other explosives involved. frankly the information is confused tonight. at least five other packages found on the street were deemed to be suspicious and destroyed by boston police and bomb squad techs. there were many packages to check, officials say because after the explosions people dropped what they were carrying and ran away. we have heard conflicting accounts about whether there were also some unexploded bombs. some officials say tonight that the two other packages were found that contained some forms of explosives but other officials say there were just the two bombs, the two that went off. safe to say that remains unclear. several officials say the bombs that did go off included shrapnel that multiplied the injuries, b.b.s and ball bearings, they say.

they are looking at surveillance video to see if they can see anyone placing packages at the points where the bombs went off. they described the devices as crude with thankfully less explosive power than might have been contained in packages of this size. they stressed tonight there is no suspect in custody, but they are talking to a 20-year-old saudi man here on a currently valid student visa. he was seen running from the area, but he had serious burns. he's in a hospital and being questioned there. lawrence? >> pete, i have been impressed with the caution and precision of your coverage all day. there have been a lot of different things that have passed through the media today that turned out to be rumors and not true or not true at that time. how would you guide us and the media in going forward here and what we should be careful of as we look at these developments? >> well, i think the thing that stands out to me tonight is they really don't have a direction

one way or the other as to who did this, whether it was an individual, whether it was a group. this suggests that nobody they have on their radar right now, whether they are in custody is lighting up the charts for them or seen as a particularly promising lead. of course, you can just be sure that anyone they are questioning they are not only talking to them but also aggressively checking their backgrounds, looking at people that they've been in contact with, doing everything they can short of getting a court order to investigate and search. so that's very active. they are looking at all kind of tips coming in. they are looking at pictures that they're getting. but at the same time, they're moving relatively slowly to actually analyze the evidence on the scene. it appears now, lawrence, that they won't get down on their hands and knees and do that pain staking gathering up of evidence and forensics until tomorrow.

possibly because they are still concerned about all the packages they have to run down and make sure they are not hazardous and possibly because they want to make sure that they get the right people on the scene to do it, experienced bomb technicians who have the misfortune of having looked at these things before and know what to look for. >> they are working under the pressure of having sealed off and closed off a vital area of downtown boston, a central business area that they will be under real pressure to reopen as soon as possible. >> they will. but, you know, my sense is they will not jump the gun in any way. they consider it far more important to make sure they gather up every last piece of evidence. remember, it took them awhile. the key piece of evidence in the oklahoma city bombing was an axle that had a serial number on it. it's finding that one key thing. often that can make the difference. you are dealing here with much

smaller explosives, so the pieces are necessarily much smaller. but knowing, for example, i guess a single piece of evidence. if you find little bits of backpack, that leads you in a certain direction. you start looking for pictures of people who were carrying backpacks heading for that scene or you know, within the certain time frame before the explosion went off. so, that's the kind of thing that is very important. i'm sure that pressure will be on them. something tells me the city of boston will be more understanding than it might in other situations to give them the time they need. >> pete, it seems to me there's probably an unprecedented amount of video and photographic evidence that will eventually be available to the investigators with all of those camera phones, thousands and thousands of camera phones just in those twos crucial blocks where all this occurred. how will they possibly, over time, harvest all of that and analyze all of that? >> that would be a happy problem to deal with, if it turns out

there is that abundance of material. one problem that stands out in my mind is people were probably looking in the wrong direction. they are looking in the street, they're not looking behind them. so, that may limit the number of cameras who is lenses are pointed in the right direction at the right time. they will look at commercial surveillance cameras and government surveillance cameras. yes, we've already known that they're asking for people to send them pictures and stills and video that they may have made around that time. so they hope they have a huge amount of material to deal with. what they will do is try to match it all up so they can sync it in terms of time. if you have 100 or 200 pieces of video, you try to match it up and you eventually end up with hundreds ordazs certainly of different views at the same time and you can run it frame by frame and see what pops up.

>> pete williams, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> you bet. we are looking at aerial video of boylston street in boston where you can just see bloodstains in that shot, 100 feet -- more than 100 feet above the sidewalk. an amazing puddle of blood on that sidewalk. joining me now from boston, mike barnicle outside massachusetts general hospital. mike, we just had a briefing from surgeon dr. peter fagenholz a trauma surgeon there at mass general. as you and i know, if anything does happen to you in boston, you are lucky if you are close to massachusetts general hospital as 29 of those patients were today that are now in that hospital. mike, what is the feeling there? i've been having trouble imagining what it's like up there in my hometown tonight. >> reporter: well, lawrence, you know the town well. it's a very small town, the area

we are talking about where the bombings occurred is a very small street. boylston street in downtown boston, perhaps the bombings occurred in no more than 100 yards distance. the mood in the city is one of obvious somberness, people are upset about what happened. the day, as you know, patriots' day in boston is a celebration, it's a community celebration. there is no school. it's a holiday for the entire state. children are out of school. this is the start of school vacation week. for years, every patriots' day begins with a red sox game that starts at 11:00 in the morning as it did this morning and the marathon goes off in hop kington, 26 miles away from boston. the runners proceed through a circuitious course, past boston college, down commonwealth avenue on to boylston street, the finish line. it's a community of strangers, lawrence.

you know all of this. people from around the world, from around the country gather to cheer on relatives, friends, sisters, daughters, husbands, what have you. most of the runners after the first 2 1/2 hours have concluded are people running for specific purposes, running in memory of a loved one, running to raise awareness and money for cancer, muscular dystrophy, aids, all sorts of causes. today, there were many people running to honor those lost in newtown, connecticut. several people from newtown were among the runners. several people, more than several people in the stands were from the newtown, connecticut area. then, approximately close to 3:00, these two explosions occurred and have cast a pal over the day, a pall over the event. i's a national holiday in the minds of many in massachusetts. i have to tell you, lawrence,

you would be proud to be here this evening. there's a resilience in the air as well. people are strong. they will wake up tomorrow and the sun will come back. the worst among us, whether it's international or domestic terrorism, as we have alluded to all evening long since 3:00 this afternoon, the worst among us arrived this afternoon on boylston street in boston. the best among us were in the multitudes, in far greater numbers than the worst among us. you saw the human spirit today in boston as you have seen it throughout many cities where terrorist attacks have occurred both abroad and here in this country. you saw people helping people. you saw strangers helping strangers. i talked to one young man, an eyewitness standing in front of the lord & taylor on boylston street. the first explosion was 75 yards to his right as he waited there for his girlfriend conclude the race. the second explosion 1 to 20 seconds later was 25 yards to his left.

he saw people losing limbs, he saw people, strangers tieing turn kits on people's legs. he saw a man jump on two children to cover them from further blasts that, thankfully, did not occur. but the ultimate scene, lawrence, as you know as we've described here all day long is normally one of joy and celebration and a communion of spirit. that scene, boylston street, the finish line is unfortunately tonight, a murder scene. >> yeah, mike, you and i both have watched that scene so many times over the years, people coming down boylston street. even the ones coming in six hours after the finisher. it's the biggest moment of their lives. thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> reporter: you're welcome. joining me now by phone from boston, new england, jackie bruno who was at the scene of the explosions. jackie, you were covering this

at the finish line today, weren't you? >> caller: i was covering a different story, a feature, a story about a couple who was running the marathon from dallas, texas, who was supposed to get married at the boston common at 5:30. we were moving our car when it happened. we were coming out of the parking garage where boylston street is. we were coming out of the parking garage. give you an idea, i think mike just said by lord & taylor where this happened, we were facing lord & taylor. we were coming out and i heard a big boom after we paid. i said what was that? i think we made a joke, a gunshot? like, yeah, right. the race has already started. then we heard another one. at that point, it was clear something terrible had happened. we jumped out of the car. we were about on the street. left the car there for a second to run down. as we were getting out of the car, i noticed a swarm of people running at me with horror on their face. i thought, i'm going to get

trampled. we ran through the crowd ni. my photographer john happened was amazing. he went into action and started shooting. we just kind of experienced, along with everybody else, being a reporter, so often we're able to be a little bit more jaded because we're away from the situation. i feel like i experienced it as an eyewitness person right there and i'm also now reporting on it. it's an interesting situation for me to try to process all of this. basically, what i saw was people strewn about. it's hard to sanitize this for people. i basically saw people with their legs blown off. i saw a woman with her foot missing. i saw blood. i saw a young boy being carried away by a police officer. he had blood all over his face, he wasn't moving. we're finding out there's an 8-year-old. i don't know if that was the case, but i did see a young boy with blood all over his face being carried away. i was only there for a few minutes before we realized we

had to move the car. we weren't sure if there was another explosion. that was going to follow it. so we went to move the car also to allow other people coming out of the parking garage because we were blocking the way. then we weren't able to get back to the scene right away. that's why i wasn't able to be there any longer than that. that experience i had was horrific, to say the least. we took a picture and video and were able to get it right away. and to see it right away. i think i had a view that fortunately and unfortunately, a lot of reporters didn't see and something i'll never forget. i think i still haven't completely processed. >> i'm wondering, when you got out of that car, you were steps away from where this bomb had gone off, based on what you just described to me. >> caller: right. >> i think some listeners think she was around the corner but it's really basically that very same spot. >> yeah, it's a very wide street. you can see right there.

>> as soon as you start moving out of your car, you see people running away, toward you, from what was that explosion of that bomb. those injured people, are they bloodied people coming toward you? >> most of the people who were injured were on the ground. one guy who went across the street, the corner where i was at, and he had a bloody leg but nothing that seemed extremely traum tramatic to me until i saw the people on the other side of the street right where this bomb went off. that's where the people were missing limbs. i saw one guy with red sneakers on with shoelaces untied. i realized that was not the case. that was actually a guy with his legs blown off. one thing that was striking, i grew up here, i am from the area. i went to boston university. i've reported here my whole life. it's just incredible because you love the boston marathon. it's a day of joy. you watch the runners come in. you are excited for them.

you can see the joy on their faces. the runners i saw coming in were horrified by the scene. you could tell they were trying to process. they were running in with joy and immediately that changed. they were looking to the left and they saw body parts and people without limbs and a horrific scene that seemed to be something out of a movie or one of those horrific shows -- i keep on thinking of the walking dead like this is stuff we don't see every day in a situation unless you're in a war. you know, that's the kind of injuries we were seeing. it was really traumatic. >> jackie, i want to go through how your mind set changed. i think you described it well. i'm from boston, too. i remember as a kid, i thought i got the day off school because of the boston marathon. in fact, it was patriots day, this holiday that we celebrate there. it's very festive. it's not the place where your mind is ready or poised to shift into any kind of negative or

kind of crisis coverage. i'm just wondering if you can kind of replay it in your head, those fractions of seconds where you went from what you thought you were doing, you actually thought you were covering a marathon and a wedding. when you went from that to realizing you are covering a major historic american disaster. >> yeah, we knew it immediately. the kind of carnage we saw, this wasn't something small. some people said early on maybe a manhole blew up. i couldn't imagine a manhole blowing up would cause such a horrific situation. i mean, what we saw, i knew pretty instantly that something was bad. because there were two explosions. i didn't realize there was another one down on boylston street. but i just knew that i heard two large explosions. i thought they were both in the same area considering the carnage that i saw. that's what i was thinking that moment. now processing this, going back,

i wasn't on that side of the street today, but last year i was right there, you know, going into the restaurants and bars with friends. this is what you do on marathon monday. you want to be at the finish line. you want to be actually on that side of the road. it's a better side to be on because that's where more restaurants and bars are, where people are enjoying it. you are watching it on the television and on the road. you are cheering each and every time somebody comes through. from the early morning on, when the wheelchairs come through, the early participants, you cheer from that moment on. the time when you see the people are finally coming in, the end of the pack and you're cheering those people on because you know they need it more than the people in the beginning. this is the kind of day we had. it's also a day where you needed passes to get into the grand stantsds or on -- stands or on the sidewalk. it's a free, open area where people go back and forth. it's easy and it's hard to, you know, whether you are in new york or another city, it's hard

to navigate a sidewalk and know whether or not somebody has a bomb or not. all you need is a backpack, all you need is just a person and they could blow up a sidewalk. that's all that happens here. when people wonder about security, how do you secure a sidewalk, public and open sidewalk? that's what happened here. >> knowing that area, i don't know how they could secure any of that. it's as we know, it's a very upscale, commercial neighborhood with some of the higher priced stores. it's a very high end residential neighborhood a couple blocks away there. >> caller: one more thing, lawrence. >> go ahead. >> mentioning the kind of neighborhood that it is, there's tons of storesen an restaurants. new bury street is the next street over. every single store on new bury street when we had made it back to the area probably around 4:00, every single store was closed. it was a ghost town. you know how it is on boston marathon day, it's a zoo, people everywhere. the only people we found were

people who weren't from this area who couldn't get into their hotel rooms. we found a few marathoners still with the kind of garbage reflective material around them to keep them warm. they were freezing, they had nowhere to go. that was the sad part when i was talking to people. i was asking them, can i give you whatever water i have or can i give you anything. because you just ran 26.2 miles and now you have nowhere to go and you're just trying to reconnect with your family members. >> just to set the stage for people who might have another frame of reference, boylston street is our 5th avenue in boston. the next one over newbury street is like madison avenue, high end fashion. we are showing a map of that area of the city. then over to the north of that, the east of it, the right of the screen, is the tree lined and grass lined commonwealth avenue. which is very similar in its way to park avenue. it's very much that kind of

section of town. it's always vibrant. it's always alive. those explosions happening even without the marathon there would have hurt a lot of people at anytime of the business day or a weekend day for that matter. >> absolutely. i have to mention the boston marathon volunteers. of course the police and firefighters and first responders and doctors on the scene did wonders. but the boston marathon volunteers volunteer each and every year for this never imagined they were going to be in a situation like this, responded in an instant. many people said they were giving them their phone for them to call family members. when you are running a marathon, you don't have anything on you but your clothes. they didn't have the opportunity to call people. between the people on the finish line trying to call the people to let them know that they were okay to the boston marathon runners trying to get their family members on the finish line, they were really making a difference in connecting families today. they need to be applauded.

their bravery was apparent. they went into action and had an entirely different mission than what they came for. >> jacquie bruno of new england cable news. thank you for joining me tonight. your reporting has been invaluable here at msnbc thank you. >> thank you very much. >> we'll have more on this breaking story. we'll be right back. was a record collection. no. there was that fuzzy stuff on the gouda. [ both ] ugh! when it came to our plants... we were so confused. how much is too much water? too little? until we got miracle-gro moisture control. it does what basic soils don't by absorbing more water, so it's there when plants need it. yeah, they're bigger and more beautiful. guaranteed. in pots. in the ground. in a ukulele. are you kidding me? that was my idea. with the right soil... everyone grows with miracle-gro. with the right soil... ok s o i' everyone grows with miracle-gro. 've been havingsoil... with greek nonfat yogurt, loaded with protein 0% fat that thick creamy texture, i was in trouble. look i'm in a committed relationship with activia

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the fbi is taking the lead in this investigation. it is asserting federal jurisdiction. it will do so through the joint terrorism task force. it is a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation. i'm not at liberty right now to go into details of that investigation, but echoing governor patrick's words, i encourage everyone to have a heightened state of vigilance tonight and tomorrow as we move forward. >> that was from a news conference held about an hour ago. joining me now, on the phone, is

photographer sir dar azturk at the scene photographing the marathon today. where were you located? >> caller: i was about a half block away. >> away from the finish line? >> yeah, away from the finish line where the explosion had happened. my part of the marathon, who i was shooting had finished. i had gone back to my hotel right at the fairmount right outside right next to the medical tent. the medical tent was literally 15 feet from the front door of my hotel. dropped off my camera, all my equipment, went back to get a bite to eat, to get lunch with the rest of my team. as soon as we sat down, boom, the first explosion went off. >> and what did you do then? >> instantly, i just stopped. that first -- after the first explosion, i heard it, i felt it through my feet all the way up to my chest. and everyone in the room,

everyone outside stopped. it was like a movie. no one knew what to do. no one knew what happened at that moment. it wasn't so much a sense of fear as it was confusion until that second one went off. as soon as the second one went off, whether you knew it was a bomb or not, you knew it was something terrible. instantly, everyone had fear in their heart. people were crying, running, confused. i immediately went outside the restaurant. i looked and i was at an intersection. i looked in any direction and every street was clogged, full of people running, running in any direction for their life. because there was two bombs, you didn't know if there was going to be a third one. they weren't even exactly right next to each other so you didn't know if there was going to be a third one or where it was going to come from. it was just a mass panic of confusion and mayhem.

>> and there's a photograph we just showed that you took of the medical tent itself where the ambulances were convening, getting ready to get those patients out of there. what did you do after realizing that this really is two explosions we just heard? >> caller: i made sure that my team was okay and everything was good. we actually left the restaurant immediately, went back to the hotel and just made a head count to see if there was anything we could do and immediately got locked in our hotel. security and police threw us in. we were basically in a glass box not knowing what to do. i was more scared of being at the fairmont more than anything just because of the fact that the media and the press conference for all the athletes in the marathon had been happening in that building. >> yeah, that's the big -- >> caller: scared to be inside. >> that's the big hotel,

conventions are held there, very close to the finish line of the marathon. >> caller: it's about 100 feet from the marathon. >> yeah, and we've gotten some reports during the course of the say saying that some hotels have been evacuated. others saying that the hotels are in lockdown. what is your experience at the fairmont? >> caller: once i got to the hotel, they asked for my key card to make sure that i was actually staying at the hotel. if you got in, you were not coming out. it was like that for hours and hours. now you can leave, but you can only exit in the way where you are leaving the crime scene. you cannot be hanging around anywhere near that. if you do, they are going to consider you a threat. >> thanks for joining us tonight and thanks for allowing us to use that photograph. >> caller: thank you. >> joining me now by phone is taylor landis who also witnessed the bombing on boylston street today. taylor, where were you when this

happened? >> caller: i was on the opposite side of the street of the bombing about 75 yards away. so -- >> which bombing, the first or the second? >> from the first, i was closer to the second. the second one was only probably a block and a half away from us. >> did you realize at the sound of the first one what was happening, or did you, like most people, not fully understand until you heard the second one? >> i was actually facing away from the first one when it went off. the group that i was with, all of us thought we heard a cannon fire, so we turned our attention. that's exactly what it sounded like, a cannon firing. we turned our attention to the finish line. that's when we saw the cloud of smoke. even then, we were sitting there saying what is going on. then i'd say within ten seconds of, you know, us turning around, we actually saw the second one happen, and that's when we kind

of started putting things together. >> what did you do after you realized what was happening? >> well, i was with my dad, my brother, and my future brother-in-law. my dad actually kind of had us back away from the street a little bit. we were kind of next to a building that had stone pillars that protected us a little bit. a lot of the people in my area just kind of were a little confused and stunned about what was going on. we kind of just stayed in the area trying to figure out what was happening. then as more and more people were coming our way, coming away from the explosion, we started kind of putting two and two together and then we started heading back toward mass avenue and away from the explosions. >> taylor, what we seem to be hearing tonight is there were not a lot of injured or bloody people walking around because most of the injuries were below the waist.

most of the injuries were to the legs, so people were disabled, if they were injured. so did you see injured people leaving the scene? >> no, i didn't see any injuries whatsoever. the only injuries i have seen have been via pictures. so that's correct. no one who was injured was walking around. thankfully, i didn't see anything. i honestly don't know what i would have done if i did see anything. no, if people were injured, they were staying where they were. from what i have heard, they would not have been able to walk around at all. >> taylor, i want you to help us tell the story of what this day normally means in boston. your family has a tradition on this day, don't you? >> yes, weise basically, we've had season tickets to the red sox for a while. so our tradition is that we go to the red sox game, which is, you know, everyone loves the red

sox in boston. i mean, that's the heart of the city. and then you actually -- the game ends and you end up right on comm eave. that's right outside of fenway. you cheer on the runners. it's such a happy, go lucky day for the city of boston. it's just everyone is having a blast, you know, when i was a kid, i used to think that i would get school off because of the boston marathon. it was always the best day. so, for something like this to happen, it is just the most terrible feeling. there's nothing but happiness on this day. there's really nothing to describe it better than happy, go lucky day. everyone always has a blast. for this to happen, it's just, you know, just awful. >> taylor landes, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you.

>> joining me now, nbc's steve kornacki. steve, you are the only one i know at msnbc who has run that marathon course. we were just talking with taylor landes about what it means. you grew up in the area. and have long memories of this. >> sure. patriots' day really is the essence of boston and the boston marathon really because it's simultaneously this sort of world class event where you have the best athletes in the world coming into the city. at the same time, a quirky parochial thing that the rest of the country is working on patriots day. >> it's hard to explain why you have a holiday on that day. >> not just a holiday -- >> my cousins were always jealous in other states who didn't get that day off from school. >> day off, it was the kick off of the week. ach vacation -- april vacation week in massachusetts. patriots day, the experience -- i say i ran the marathon, i was one of those idiots who

jumped in after heart break hill because i wanted the experience of running the last five or six i have miles of the race. >> that's more than i've done. >> it's an amazing feeling when you're on beacon street and go over the mass pike, there's a slight hill there, it's a slow descent into kenmore square. you have all these fans from fenway park congregating there. >> it's timed so people are leaving fenway park to cheer on the winners of the marathon, which they did today. >> just as they come through. i got a little feeling of it. but i could see it in the runners around me. you get to kenmore square and the whole world is waiting for you. that's about the start of the last mile of the race or so. you have these people that made it 25 miles at that point. they have spent months and years training for this. the crowd to mass avenue, the crowd carries you for the last mile of that race. there's a roar in kenmore and a

roar when you turn to boylston street. you can just imagine for the average runner somebody who grew up around boston, new england, this is the ultimate achievement for them to have run 26.2 miles in the same race where you have professional athletes who are aspiring to world records. >> we are watching the history of boston come together. the first boston marathon in 1887. we are seeing people involved in that marathon today being brought to a hospital founded in 1811, massachusetts general. now a 202-year-old hospital. we're watching this city bring its assets together in a crisis, in a trauma, and trying to move forward. they certainly do have all the equipment they need to get through what's coming. but it's hard to believe what they have been through already today. >> no, i mean, absolutely. my first thought when this, you

know, my cousin actually works at the mandarin oriental hotel which is across the street from where the second explosion was. i have some friends up there, you know, for the marathon or the red sox game. everybody else who has family and friends around there, you immediately think of them and how they're doing. you talk to them throughout the day and everybody i know is okay, thank goodness. >> i spent a couple hours today tracking people down, tracking down cousins and gradually, they all came in. one relative lives very, very close to the scene of this bombing today. so, i think that's been true for a lot of people. they have been texting and checking. the cell phones were down in boston for awhile. i couldn't get people on the phone there because their cell phones weren't working in those area codes. >> texting was the way. you are thinking of people you haven't seen in some cases or talked to in a coue