Boston bombing victim in iconic photo helped identify suspects

Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him.

In this April 15, 2013 file photo, an emergency responder and volunteers, including Carlos Arredondo, in the cowboy hat, push Jeff Bauman in a wheel chair after he was injured in an explosion near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

By: Asjylyn Loder and Esmé E. Deprez Bloomberg, 

Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him.

Just before 3 p.m. on April 15, Bauman was waiting among the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. A man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet, his brother, Chris Bauman, said in an interview.

Two and a half minutes later, the bag exploded, tearing Jeff’s legs apart. A picture of him in a wheelchair, bloodied and ashen, was broadcast around the world as he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. He lost both legs below the knee.

“He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview.

Those words may help crack the mystery of who perpetrated one of the highest-profile acts of terror in the U.S. since the 2001 assault on New York City and the Washington area, one that killed three people and wounded scores.

While still in intensive care, Jeff Bauman gave the FBI a description of the man he saw, his brother said. Bauman’s information helped investigators narrow down whom to look for in hours of video of the attack, he said.

The bureau released video images of two men Thursday. Both men have on hooded sweatshirts under dark jackets; one is wearing a light-coloured baseball cap turn backward on his head, while the other is wearing a dark baseball cap facing forward. Both are carrying large backpacks.

“I’ve had many times alone with him, and yes, he told me every single detail,” Chris Bauman said.

Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, declined to comment on specific tips in the continuing investigation. Two FBI agents interviewed at the Boston office declined to confirm or deny the account.

On April 15, Remy Lawler, 25, was standing with Jeff Bauman, said her father, Arthur Lawler, of Amesbury. Shortly before the explosion, Remy, who’s the roommate of Jeff’s girlfriend, Erin Hurley, moved closer to the finish line, away from Bauman and another friend, to take better photographs.

She suffered a baseball-sized shrapnel wound.

Shortly after, Lawler called her mother’s cellphone and left a message in which she cried “Mom! Mom!” Medics could be heard telling her, “You’re going to be all right,” her father said.

‘Feels Guilty’

“She feels guilty about a lot of this—that she wasn’t with her friends,” Arthur Lawler said.

It would take hours before the Bauman family knew what had happened to Jeff. They learned about it the way much of the world did: the grisly image on television of their son being wheeled from the scene, his lower legs destroyed.

Erika Schneider, Bauman’s sister, saw it first. “She called my mom, freaking out,” Chris said. Chris was working at a McDonald’s near their home in Concord, New Hampshire, when his mother called him.

“Chris, you have to sprint home,” she said. “Something’s happened.”