the boston marathon bombers and ends up cracking the art heist, he will find himself in serious danger of having a statue built for him somewhere in the great city of boston. seriously, it's time to watch stay with us. well, good evening for what is normally "rock center" at this hour, this time every friday night. tonight it's a bit more like an extension of our live news coverage. for the past 24 hours, certainly all day long today, and all through the evening tonight. it turned into a remarkable evening, and it ended well, meaning the suspect in boston, the younger of the two brothers was apprehended alive. he's being treated at the hospital. but what a terrible toll these

two brothers, these two suspects, one of them now dead, what a terrible toll they leave behind. it all ended tonight as one law enforcement official put it, with a whimper. inside a boat in a trailer in a back yard in watertown, massachusetts. and then it ended with a genuine cheer. all those first responders, cops, firemen, as they exited town, the town that was terrorized by a gun battle in the streets last night, they were all cheered, and they had a chance to shine, bask in the glow of joyful citizens who were just thankful they came in, they rode in to save the day. kate snow was there amid all of it tonight, and she is joining us tonight to start it all off. kate, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. let's remember what this week has been like, a week that seemed like it would just never end here in boston. on monday of course you had the devastating bombings at the

marathon. a couple of days later, last night the fbi holds a press conference showing video and pictures of two key suspects and asking the public for help. the first sign of a major development in the manhunt came about 10:00 p.m. eastern time thursday. about five hours after the fbi news conference. in cambridge, across the charles river from boston. surveillance video showed one of the suspects at a convenience store. former fbi terrorism task force special agent don borelli. >> you know, at the end of the evening i was fairly confident that we would have some success. never dreamed that it would unfold in the manner in which it did. >> reporter: a short time later, at approximately 10:20 p.m., there was a report of gunfire at the nearby massachusetts institute of technology, m.i.t. at 10:30 p.m. an m.i.t. campus police officer was found shot to death in his vehicle. he was later identified as 26-year-old sean collier. and it wasn't over.

now an armed carjacking of a black mercedes suv, its driver held hostage at gunpoint for half an hour. the gunmen would then take that mercedes suv on a wild and deadly ride from cambridge to watertown, massachusetts. >> on the right. >> reporter: as they sped through the streets, the suspects shot at police and threw explosive devices from the speeding car. a police officer was seriously wounded. and in watertown around midnight lindsay gaylord and her boyfriend carlin osfeld found themselves in the center of the storm. >> there was probably 30 cops on foot running towards us on the opposite side, and they were like get the f back, what are you guys doing, get away. >> it was just -- it was surreal. it felt like a movie. >> reporter: as more than 200 rounds were fired, resident kayla depaula called 911. >> i just heard explosion after explosion. so i crouched down in my doorway and i saw the bullet come from

here through there. >> you saw it? >> saw it happen. it was so scary. it was so loud. >> reporter: shortly after 1:00 a.m. eastern time whgh tv reporter adam williams was caught in the crossfire nearby. >> we're all taking cover right now behind the different news vehicles. even the police, though, are taking cover behind their cars. >> reporter: these are bullet holes inside the home of steven and emily mccowpen. we spoke with them today via skype because they were still on lockdown. >> as we were crawling through the hallway, we saw a big flash out front. and you know, there was like an explosion with glass. >> reporter: another resident, andrew kitzenberg, described what he was witnessing to msnbc using skype. >> i will walk it here. so it's kind of angled right now at the bomb squad. >> reporter: michael duchette says he saw what happened next. >> there's the guy out front shooting it out with the cops. and i see an officer and him about 30 feet apart shooting at

each other. craziest stuff i ever seen. >> reporter: police say this man, the suspect in the black hat, had gotten out of the mercedes suv and was strapped with explosives. during the shootout he was hit by police fire and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. the other suspect, that man in the white cap, floored the accelerator of the suv to get away, running over the man we'd later learn was his own brother. >> the cops jumped out of the way right in time before it ran over the brother and dragged him 35 feet up the street. >> reporter: at 5:45 a.m. all boston public transportation shut down. at 6:30 a.m. amtrak suspended train service in and out of boston. then as morning arrived the world learned -- >> authorities say that the two are brothers. >> reporter: the dead brother was identified as tamerlan tsarnaev, 26 years old. the brother on the run, dzhokhar tsarnaev, age 19. >> in my fbi days we had a term for these tier one terrorists,

the most dangerous terrorists. we used to call them bomb chuckers. we have a real-life no kidding bomb chucker on the loose. >> reporter: in and around boston everyday life ground to a halt. police departments made emergency calls to residents. >> stay indoors until further instructions. >> reporter: just after 10:00 a.m. this is what watertown, massachusetts neighborhoods looked like. police on the street. helicopters overhead. nearly a million people in six different communities have been simply told to stay indoors. after an anxiety-filled week it's a day like nothing boston has ever experienced. nbc news correspondent kerry sanders was on the "today" show from watertown when police told him to take cover. >> the officer started yelling "get down, get down." >> reporter: the uncle of the surviving brother pleaded with his nephew. >> i say dzhokhar, if you're alive, turn yourself in. and ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the injured. >> reporter: just as dusk was

falling tonight, another break in the manhunt. and for the second night in a row a suburban boston neighborhood was on pins and needles, jarred by something that sure sounded like gunfire. after more than 24 hours of searching, police seemed to finally have the remaining suspect in the marathon bombings cornered. police say a resident here in watertown called in to report blood in a back yard leading to a boat where police believed the suspect was hiding. as an ambulance left the area around 9:00 p.m. eastern time tonight -- >> suspect in custody. >> reporter: -- the crowd cheered. in the end it had all come down to ordinary citizens rallying to help the authorities. the younger brother now in a boston hospital undergoing treatment. and of course, brian, authorities would very much like to talk to him. back to you. >> kate snow. a lot of lessons learned, but on the up side, while there were rumors and fits and starts, this was a kind of rollout experiment for a crowd-sourced manhunt

spread via media but more importantly social media. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. the minute they put those pictures and video out last night it just took off, brian. people started calling. people giving tips. they flooded local authorities. and that is probably part -- certainly part of what led to the downfall of the second suspect here tonight. >> kate snow starting off our coverage tonight. kate, thanks. and our chief foreign affairs correspondent, chief foreign correspondent richard engel with us here in the studio tonight. there's a lot of ground to cover. but you find meaning in the most interesting things that we have witnessed tonight. and that is from the applause that came at the end of the night to the people who saved the day, to the fact that this suspect is alive. why those two things? >> i thought those were the two things that struck me about what we saw today. first, that he's alive. because now he can be debriefed and we can answer all of these

questions that counterterrorism officials have been asking themselves and looking into all day. were these just two brothers who decided to motivate themselves, who according to their internet trail were looking at jihadi websites about pakistan and about chechnya and decided to do something for the cause and put some bombs, or were they actually in contact with groups outside the country? he's alive, so we can know that. we can find out if there's other organizations out there that are affiliated with them. were they planning other attacks, or did they settle their bombs out? that's very, very important. the second thing is the applause. and it's not just a feel-good moment. this has national security implications. all day in terrorist chat rooms where, by the way, they were celebrating this like you have no idea, these al qaeda forums, they were saying this is a great idea. they were inviting other sort of lone wolves or wannabes to do the same kind of thing. and all day they were saying

that the people of boston are terrorized, look at them cowering in their homes. and then instead we saw the people of boston come out onto the streets and thank the police officers, embrace themselves, not cowering but clapping. and that shows that this didn't succeed. that shows that people are willing to get up and go about their daily lives. >> so the actions of the people in watertown, massachusetts, a lot of them in flip-flops, shorts, and t-shirts on a street corner, will actually, that expression, they'll hear you overseas. that will actually be seen and heard overseas. >> the point of all of this is to terrorize people. that is the point of terrorism. there's a perception in this mindset that americans are weak, that we're a consumer society, that we're spoiled, that we're soft, and that the little chink in the armor and the whole system starts to collapse. that's why you punish the people. they're the soft targets. and instead, when people come

out and say we are not willing to be cowered. yes, we're the soft targets. you can attack us. but we won't give in. that shows a kind of resolve that terrorists don't expect to find in a capitalist consumer country like this, like in boston. will that register with the militants? probably not. they're going to say we won. but it will register with some, that it didn't work. >> well, i'll say as the period at the end of the sentence, a lot of us did not like where this transported us back to. i know you chief among them, having spent the better part of a decade covering two wars. richard engel, thanks for your advice and counsel and your expert eye tonight. the mother of these two suspects said in an interview this evening she thought it was all an fbi setup. she said "nothing in my sons' computers has gone unseen by the fbi for years." the father, well, you'll hear from him in a moment. but people who knew both of these young men used words like

kind, friendly, warm, and approachable. what a huge disconnect between those words and what these two young men did. our report on these two suspects tonight from nbc's ann curry. >> reporter: in a telephone interview this evening, anzor tsarnaev, the father of the bombing suspects, denied his sons had anything to do with terror. >> translator: you could kill me, but i would never believe they had anything to do with this. >> how do you explain why authorities are saying that your two sons are suspected of terrorism? >> translator: this is nonsense. it doesn't add up. >> why would your sons be angry at america? why would your sons want to bomb and hurt people in america? >> translator: they would never, never, never do that in their lives. these boys were raised well. it's not physically possible they would be angry and bomb

america. >> reporter: he also told us that the fbi had been watching his family and had visited their home in cambridge five times, most recently a year and a half ago, looking for tamerlan. >> why was the fbi watching your family? >> translator: they said they were doing preventive work. they were afraid there might be some explosions on the streets of boston. >> reporter: he says he last spoke with the sons just after the marathon and they assured him they were okay. he brought his sons to cambridge from russia's war-torn caucasus more than ten years ago. tamerlan, 26, who was killed in a firefight early this morning, attended community college and wanted to become an engineer. an avid mixed martial artist, he told boston university magazine he wanted to become an american citizen and join the u.s. olympic boxing team. while he was a snappy dresser and drove a mercedes, tamerlan is quoted as saying "i don't have a single american friend. i don't understand them." his wife and 3-year-old daughter are seen here being escorted by

investigators today. her mother released a statement from her rhode island home. "in the aftermath of the patriots day horror we know we never knew tamerlan tsarnaev. our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted." meanwhile, tamerlan's brother dzhokhar, 19, was still on the run. he became a u.s. citizen last year, registered as a student at the university of massachusetts dartmouth. on his russian social media profile he says he is single, lists his priorities as career and money, and declares his worldview is islamic. >> it doesn't make sense. it just doesn't add up. >> reporter: rose shootsberg grew up with dzhokhar. >> tell me about your friendship. >> we met in high school. ninth grade. our friendship sort of developed over time, as most relationships do throughout high school. and it wasn't until sort of i would say the end of senior year

where things really solidified because i started working as a lifeguard with him at harvard university. we worked together. we did model u.n. together. >> you came to new york. >> we came to new york to do model u.n. >> you even had a crush on him. >> i even had a crush on him. whenever i was speaking to him i felt safe. >> interesting you use the word safe given the events -- >> i know. this is like something i'm so struggling with. i don't really understand how the dzhokhar i knew and the dzhokhar that's being publicized throughout the media, they don't match up at all for me. >> reporter: rose says dzhokhar was close to his older brother tamerlan but -- >> dzhokhar and his brother were very different people. and i think that maybe his experience here was slightly different than that of his brother's. he came here when he was

younger. so -- >> would you characterize him as an american kid? >> absolutely. yeah. definitely. he knew more like slang terms, cool words to use than i did. like there's no language barrier. he was what i might term like a typical cambridge boy. >> reporter: the suspect's father confirmed to us today that the elder brother spent six months in russia last year. he also had this message for police. >> translator: they killed one of my sons. i want at least the other son to live so that in the world court we can prove he's innocent if god allows. >> if you could speak to your son, what would you tell him? >> translator: that i love him and i can't live without him. >> ann thompson on those -- i'm sorry. i'm about to say we'll go to ann thompson in boston. ann curry on these two suspects in this case, one living in

serious condition tonight, one dead. now, as i was saying, when we come back from the break, we'll go to massachusetts bay state native ann thompson. what this has done to boston and what tonight feels like in boston.

we are back. we go, as advertised, to massachusetts native anne thompson in copley square tonight. anne, you know i grew up in a baseball and football broken home. dad from boston who eventually rooted for the mets while i grew up rooting for the yankees and new york football giants. but i've put all of that aside this week because boston is the priority.

and around this time last night it seemed like an insane world of hurt had been brought on that luckily very resilient city. >> reporter: it is an extraordinarily resilient city, brian. and you know, tonight the president said that boston refused to be intimidated and that is so true. it was a very strange day in this city. i can tell you. i mean, the lockdown turned boston into almost a state of martial law. in the public garden we saw the swan boats were just sitting there. they were floating in the lagoon. nobody was there. they've been a boston tradition for over 130 years. in the boston common there were more s.w.a.t. teams than people. usually, that's a place where workers and runners go by the thousands. the freedom trail, which is the red brick line that takes tourists and school children to all the historic sites in this city, connected to the american revolution, no one was walking

the freedom trail. it was a very unusual day. and yet, even though people were inconvenienced, even though they were told to stay in their homes, people i talked to, brian, as the lockdown went on, they all said one thing, they didn't want the suspect to be killed when he was captured. they wanted him to be taken alive because more than anything they want answers as to why those two men did what they did to the city of boston, to the boston marathon, and to this country because people don't understand how somebody could leave bombs in a crowd of people on the greatest day in this city and take lives and change lives forever. brian? >> and yet so oddly, anne, it is suddenly all lifted. it's all gone. one guy dead. one guy in the hospital. it was just those two. we are all but convinced.

and tomorrow may be a perfectly ordinary or spectacular day in boston. >> reporter: well, it is gone in this sense. i mean, yes, the red sox will play tomorrow at fenway park. they'll take on the kansas city royals. so that will be a way to get things back to normal. but i was struck listening to the governor and all the police officers after the suspect was captured. the first people they mentioned were the four people who died -- krystle campbell, martin richard, lingzi lu and sean colier, the officer who was killed. and that is first and foremost in the minds of the people here in boston. the loss of life and then those who are still in the hospital, the people who've lost limbs, who've suffered shrapnel injuries. yes, there is a great sense of relief that this at least the first phase of this is over. the suspects -- one has been captured, one has been killed.

but they know that for the city there is a long road to recovery and this was just the first big step. brian? >> what an obscene toll of human damage by these two men. anne thompson in the great city of boston tonight. anne, thanks. we also have an update tonight on the corcoran family whose terrible suffering after the bombing moved so many people around the world who heard their story. the mother had both legs amputated, and the frantic effort to help her daughter became one of the sadly enduring images of this tragedy. tonight their family is speaking to natalie morales for the first time. >> talking about here where it is a very tense situation in watertown -- >> reporter: as the nation watched the events unfold over the last 24 hours, kevin corcoran watched, too. at boston medical center. the hospital was on lockdown for much of the day. but kevin's been here since monday, ever since his wife, celeste, and their 17-year-old

daughter, sidney, were seriously injured at the marathon. their son tyler decided to stay home at the last minute. but the rest of the family was here at the finish line, waiting for celeste's sister, carmen acabo, to cross. >> i had been turning around to look at friends to my left and behind me about 10 or 15 feet. they were holding up signs. we'd say things to each other, do you see her or what have you. >> i couldn't wait to see if everyone was so crazy at mile 22 and mile 19 what's it going to be like when i run down boils-ton. >> it happened just as she neared mile 26. >> so when the bomb went off and it hit you, what was happening around you, what did you first notice? what went through your mind? >> i have a vivid memory of seeing my daughter and my friends being blown back, falling backwards, my daughter's arms outstretched like this and

just falling, falling backwards. i think my wife took the brunt of the impact. when i turned back around, she was no longer there and nobody was standing up anymore in front of me. so for a couple of seconds i just looked left and right and then looked down and there she was. >> your wife. >> my wife, celeste. i saw her eyes were open and i still at this point, i don't realize that this is a bomb that exploded. i see her eyes open. i know she's alive. and then i start looking around. and there are limbs everywhere and blood. and i look down her body to see if she's okay. and i notice her legs. and that's when it hits you. this is obviously some type of terrorist-related event, whatever you want to call it. and that's when it got real. instinct just takes over. you take your belt off. you put a tourniquet on. dwroel a guy who happened to be running toward me. he gave me his belt.

i put on another one. and then i just laid down next to her and just told her i loved her and that everything would be okay, and i just kissed her face and just gently caressed her while people were trying to get to us. and i just stayed with her, laying down in this carnage, in the blood, just holding on to her until the professionals came over and took over. >> reporter: kevin thought his daughter sydney was okay. he didn't realize she had also been seriously wounded, shrapnel severing her femoral artery. these pictures of sidney lying on the ground are some of the most powerful images of that day. strangers hovering over her and comforting her. >> after i had realized that i could not look for my daughter, i just entrusted to humanity and that there had to be somebody out there that was taking care of her. >> reporter: one of those people was matt smith. he helped stop the bleeding. >> he kept her calm. >> he kept her calm.

>> reporter: meanwhile, at the finish line carmen was looking for her family amid the chaos. you were just right there near the finish line. your own family, too. your husband, your kids, your three kids were there too. >> they were at the finish waiting for me. and i was terrified that my family was all gone. everyone that i loved was there. >> reporter: carmen finally found them and then rushed to the hospital to be with her sister, celeste, and kevin. celeste's injuries were so severe doctors had to amputate both her legs below the knees. an hour after the bombing, the family discovered sydney was being treated in the same hospital. but it wasn't until kevin spoke to her doctor that he realized how seriously sidney was injured. >> so i asked him in no uncertain terms because i needed to know just myself, what's your opinion? how bad was this? and he said this was a mortal wound and if the people did not

get to her when they did she would have bled to death. >> those people saved her life. >> i'll never forget those words. >> reporter: matt, who helped save sydney's life, visited her in the hospital. >> i spoke with him first and thanked him. we both cried together. and he's a very gentle, kind, nice person. and i'm thankful that he was there that day. >> and i know that your wife and your daughter now are recovering together in the same room. >> they are. they were very accommodating, the hospital, which has been doing a fantastic job. put them together in what i believe is one of the larger rooms on the floor so they could be side to side. they have a bond. >> they have the best relationship. they are like joined at the hip. they are like the mother and daughter that anyone who has a daughter wants to emulate. >> reporter: both celeste and sidney underwent further surgery today. but the family says their spirits are strong. a resilience carmen witnessed

the first time she visited her sister in the hospital. >> and i just like, you know, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and i was like -- she looked at me and she's like, i can't believe i didn't see you finish this thing. >> reporter: in all of this? >> in all of this. she just found out she lost both legs and she said that. and i was like, celeste, i'm going to be with you every step of the way to get you back on your feet and to be able to conquer this. and i will. i mean, that's what we do anyway, you know. that's our family. we have a really special family. >> kevin, i know you're looking at a very long, long recovery time here for both your wife and daughter. what do you need? >> what occurs to i think anybody in this situation is how are we going to afford to pay for everything. but the overwhelming response from the community -- out of

nowhere are texting and tweeting and donating to the family website. so you realize that with their help you are going to be able to get through this and pay the bills. >> reporter: grateful for the help of others, but most grateful to still have each other. >> it just hits you like life will never be the same but she can still hug me and i still have her. she's my very best friend, and i'm just so thankful to have her in whatever capacity that i do. >> reporter: and after all they have been through, kevin corcoran has a message for those responsible for this tragedy. >> you didn't succeed in your objective. we're still going to be there and there's nothing that you can do to quell the human spirit. and you failed. you failed at what you did. >> don't know how these families are possibly coping. we have put a link to their family website that he mentioned on our website tonight for all those wishing to help the

corcoran family in the days and tough weeks ahead. when the all-clear was sounded tonight in boston, the president spoke from the white house briefing room. we'll have part of that for you coming up next.

that is just one scene of celebration in boston tonight. right after they got the all-clear and right after the officials held their press conference tonight, the president used that as his cue to walk into the white house briefing room. here's part of what he said to the nation. >> we will determine what happened. we will investigate any associations that these terrorists may have had. and we'll continue to do whatever we have to do to keep our people safe. one thing we do know is that whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not and cannot prevail. whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they've already failed. they failed because the people of boston refused to be intimidated. they failed because as americans we refuse to be terrorized.

they failed because we will not waver from the character and the compassion and the values that define us as a country. nor will we break the bonds that hold us together as americans. >> white house said, by the way, the president was doing tonight what the whole country seemed to be doing tonight. he was sitting in the white house residence for his part and he was watching all of these live developments unfold on television. a restaurant called the forum on boylston street in boston has become something of a grim landmark of this tragedy after one of the bombs, after all, blew up right outside its patio. but the restaurant also played host to some of the very best spirit of boston as the staff there sprung in to action before the smoke had even cleared. harry smith went to visit the

people who run a bar where everybody really does know your name. >> reporter: all week long, we have been looking at pictures of forum restaurant, site of monday's second explosion. this is what it looked like before the blast, cheering fans, celebrating the marathon and patriots day. until now, we haven't heard from the people working inside. forum is still a crime scene. so we met at another location. what was it like in the restaurant monday morning? >> it was exciting. i remember getting in just before 8:00 and turning the music up. it was just very upbeat, sunny day. >> reporter: chris loper is the general manager of forum. 200 yards from the marathon finish line. >> it was just such a beautiful day. everyone is excited for the marathon, to watch the race, and for the red sox game, and then to -- >> reporter: julie weeden is a former forum bartender who came back to work just for patriots day. >> what did you write on your facebook page? >> 6:00 in the morning, i wrote "coming back for one last

special stint at my favorite bar in my favorite city on my favorite day." >> reporter: no one had an inkling what about what was about to happen. the restaurant and its patio out front were getting more crowded by the minute. where were you when you heard the first explosion? >> i was two feet behind the host stand in the front of the restaurant. >> reporter: what did you think? >> i thought it was a cannon or some sort of celebration, something or other. >> reporter: joshua glover is an assistant manager. he says after the initial blast up the street most of the restaurant's patrons moved toward the front to try to figure out what was going on. it was the worst place they could be. >> where were you when the first explosion happened? >> right in front right by the v.i.p. section. and i thought it kind of shook the building a little bit. people all around me started pressing forward to crane their necks to look down the street at what it was.

>> reporter: james maderas is forum's gm. before anyone could understand the source of the explosion a second blom bomb blew up directly in front of the restaurant. second explosion happens. what's the first thing you remember? >> i was looking out and there's a mailbox right there and i was looking at the mailbox when it blew up. so i saw the actual -- just the orange fire. just it looked like a huge like firecracker, like an m-80 or something. and you just see it, it blossoms. as loud as the first one was, the second one i don't ever recall hearing it, to be honest with you. i just remember my mouth was full of grit. like all of a sudden for some reason like dirt or dust or something. my mouth was gritty and dirty. you're like oh, my god, is this really happening. and just people are falling. there's glass everywhere. so i was just worried about people falling on the glass. and everybody's running toward the back and people are diving behind couches. and it was just the most anarchic scene i've ever seen. it was just chaos. it was crazy.

>> reporter: heather gilbo was also bartending that day. >> i remember it hitting me that it was something someone was trying to hurt people. it was intentional. this was the second explosion. i remember screaming. and then i remember getting my bearings and looking up and just seeing people run. >> reporter: the able-bodied and slightly injured rushed out the back exit but not the employees. they stayed, facing a scene of carnage that was difficult to comprehend. julie, does anything prepare you for witnessing what you witnessed? >> no. no. you literally just -- it's instinct and you just go and do what you can to help people. the first thing i did was checked on my friends that were on the ground, and then i grabbed ice and towels. and then i went out to the front

and that's when i just saw complete, you know, nightmare, massacre. there was blood. there was people on the streets, on the sidewalks, you know, on the patio. you know, there was a body part here that i saw and there was something else over there, but there was just so much blood. and you don't stop and think. you don't give yourself the chance to realize what is actually going on. >> reporter: forum employees became first responders. >> the most injured people were out just in front of the patio but because of the uncertainty they were -- people were bringing them into the restaurant to try to aid them. there were members of our staff that were right there, holding on to people. taking their belts off to stop, you know, bleeding and different things like that. >> reporter: many of the people the forum staff helped were strangers. others they knew well, quite well, like julie's friend heather abbott. >> she's actually in the

hospital right now. she was getting surgery today. they were trying to reattach her foot. >> all of it is so traumatic, but to have somebody you know, have a friend of yours almost have -- >> you feel guilty. >> you feel guilty? >> uh-huh. >> why would you feel guilty? >> i'm thinking that she's there to see me. >> reporter: forum became a makeshift triage center, aiding and comforting the wounded was the only concern. >> you talk about like what people did to help and you say like were we bandaging up the injuries and stuff like that. and my most enduring image is our bartender, he was sitting on the floor. and he had an injured woman's

help on his lap. and he was just stroking her hair, comforting her. and that to me was all she needed. in a horrible time, it was a beautiful thing to see. just something so simple. >> what makes you say i'm staying here, i'm going to help these people? >> i think it's just human nature. it's the nature of the people that work at forum. it's the nature of a lot of people from boston. it's -- you see someone hurting and you want to help. >> reporter: an instinct so strong that even when they were ordered to leave no one budged. >> it was funny, once the police came in, i remember so vividly them saying everyone get out, everyone get out. and us saying no. it was one of the few times that you could say that to a police officer. >> in language perhaps a little more colorful than that? >> perhaps a little more bostonian and color than that, yes, sir.

>> reporter: only one forum employee was seriously hurt, but he's doing fine. the reality of what happened monday is still sinking in. >> it's amazing to me that more people weren't killed in that explosion. it's amazing to me that more people weren't hurt. like i look at the pictures of them prying out ball bearings out of the awning at work, and i know that there was nothing between me and that explosion. like i don't know how it didn't -- i'm lucky i'm alive. i'm lucky i wasn't hurt. lucky these guys aren't hurt. you know, it's amazing. >> at the end of the day after i had a chance to reflect on everything i was angry. i was so angry. you know, people took this great day, this great holiday, this amazing day. it's everyone's favorite day in boston. and ruined it. >> stunning to me to think you really are at the heart of the terror and you all stayed.

are you heros? >> no. >> no. >> you know like some people have asked -- said what we did was heroic. and the way i look at it is we were in the wrong place at the wrong time but we did the right thing. >> our thanks, in more ways than one, to the staff of forum restaurant, a good place to stop in if you find yourself on boylston in boston. and about what we've just been through now that the smoke has quite literally cleared, we are joined tonight by james cavanaugh, former special agent of atf. he's with us from nashville. and mr. cavanaugh, i'm curious about -- now looking at this in our rearview mirror, what worried you most about the lessons we've just learned about these two guys, what they were able to do, and what has cheered you most about the way it was resolved? >> well, brian, i think the thing that worried me most after it broke, and tuesday, was that

this is the beginning of a bombing campaign. and i think it really was. and that's evidenced by the pressure cooker that was tossed at the watertown police and the eight smaller improvised hand grenades that these guys had already made. these things were in the cache before the marathon bombs were planted. you know, these bombers, they come right out of the hallways of hell. they plant them in the crowd, vicious devices, and if they had got away they would do it again. so the calculation for the commanders on tuesday, i've been there before on the sniper case. i had been there on the eric rudolph case. i'd been there on a series of bombings on abortion clinics and other killers. and i always knew that you've got to watch, they're coming back. and the key for them to release that picture and leverage the

citizens in the digital age and leverage the power of the media. i said on one of the nbc shows they'll have them wrapped up. they'll know who they are before the sun rises on the boston harbor. and it was only a few hours. >> so we'll take that. i agree with you on both. sadly, i think you're right that we stumbled across and interrupted a bombing campaign. more than stumbled across, they brought it to us. and i agree with you that this was the first of a new era. crowd-sourced social media use in a manhunt. and in this case the good guys won in the end. mr. cavanaugh, thank you very much for being with us tonight from nashville, tennessee. >> thank you, brian. >> we'll take another break. we'll check in with kate snow after this.

we have been relying heavily on the coverage of one of our sister networks new england cable news during this entire crisis in the boston area, and tonight one of their reporters, scott yount, got closer than the others and heard a lot as this unfolded. scott, where were you, and you could actually hear the s.w.a.t. teams at least trying to talk to the suspect, correct? >> yeah, brian. we were behind the -- the house where they had converged initially. and we saw the firefight. there were a number of shots fired. they were firing at the suspect. apparently, he was firing back according to some police officers that i spoke to. then we saw the flash bombs going off, or the flash-bangs, i believe they are called. they were trying to stun him. and all that time we could hear

a single officer yelling to him, yelling the suspect's name and he would say, "you're hurt. you need a doctor. you need to give yourself up. come out with your hands up." >> and scott, i have to tell you, we heard a negotiator was going in, and i was amazed there was still a living suspect to be negotiated with after those two volleys of gunfire. i don't quite understand what transpired. >> yeah. we haven't been able to find out exactly. but what i can tell you is it was amazing to see all of these law enforcement officials work so professionally in concert, in tandem with the officials that were calling the shots about what they were doing to go in and isolate the suspect because as you know they wanted to take this guy alive and they did. >> it seems they did. it seemed that this one aspect, at least, everything worked. we were fortunate tonight. scott, you heard way more than

i'm sure the s.w.a.t. teams bargained for. but thank you for your firsthand reporting, from your firsthand reporting tonight. scott yount from new england cable news. thank you very much. kate snow has been in watertown tonight. and kate, tomorrow it seems to me gets very interesting because while the temptation tonight, and who can blame them, is to be happy. there was a resolution tonight. we've got a suspect. he's in serious condition. he's in the hospital. that cloud of oh, my goodness, all of these victims stay with us, they stay in the lives of boston, and then the investigation gets underway in earnest. >> reporter: right. and let's not forget both of those things. the investigators are going to have a huge task ahead of them. we've been talking to former fbi officials who say, look, they're going to have to now go through and sift through all of that evidence that they gathered. we saw them taking computers and other evidence out of homes over the course of today and yesterday. so they'll go through that, they'll try to figure out who

these young men were in contact with. what their communication was about. what their online activity was about. they'll be talking to their family and friends and trying to get a sense for when they may have flipped to wanting to hurt people. they'll be talking of course to the survivor who's in the hospital. the surviving accused terrorist. they'll be talking to him about everything he did. but let's not also forget that as you say, brian, there were 176 people wounded here. three people died. on monday in the marathon bombing. and that's i think going to haunt this city for a long time to come. people are recovering. people are happy tonight and relieved and less anxious. but there are still a lot of people in the hospital. tonight 54 people remain hospitalized. two of them are children. a lot of them lost limbs. they're going to have a long recovery ahead of them. one hopeful note, brian, just to mention, there's a lot of u.s. military people have been coming here already and offering support. people who lost limbs in the war coming here now and trying to

help these victims to move on with their lives and telling them they will run once again. >> yeah, that's one of the truly tragic after effects of these. these wounds are exactly the same as the combat battle injuries we've seen overseas because of the heinous way these explosions were designed. kate snow, thank you very much for your reporting all night tonight from a newly happy watertown, massachusetts. and finally tonight, before we go off the air, let's spend our last minute or so talking about boston because as we've been discussing, after all, this has been an assault on boston. no one who knows that city has any doubt about that city, its people or what they're all made of. but last night and today, that was really insult on top of real injury. think for starters about the children in that city who were forced to stay home on this

scary day while being told not to go near the windows or the doors because there might be a bad man outside in their neighborhood. and if you're like a lot of us, when somebody says boston, well, you think of sports teams. and perhaps the ultimate indignity tonight was after the week they've had the people of boston couldn't go to tonight's bruins hockey game. worse yet, they couldn't go to the red sox game at fenway. they couldn't gather at the old place to blow off steam, to cheer on the home team, or even if they wished to feel bad together. both of those games tonight postponed. but those boston sports fans will be back. the seats will be filled. and someday it will feel normal again. and as it turned out, the people of boston did find a way to cheer tonight. they cheered those cops as they drove out of town after saving the day, and they gathered outside fenway anyway and they just cheered for their city

after its worst day. we have much more tomorrow. a special saturday "today" from boston with matt, savannah and lester. for everyone here, good night. thanks for watching "rock center" on this eventful friday.