Eugene, Ore.-It is no surprise that Eugene Police will take extra precautionary measures for the upcoming Eugene Marathon, for it is the first public domestic type event in the nation, ironically a marathon, after the tragic Boston Marathon bombing.
Boston along with the rest of the nation was shaken after word of the marathon bombings spread, both blasts going off at around 2:50pm Monday, April 15th. The blasts were near the marathon finish line and area hospitals say at least 144 were injured and three were killed, including an 8-year-old little boy, due to the unexpected bombing.
The severity of the incidents in Boston last week has both the citizens and runners of Eugene concerned about the upcoming marathon that is taking place on April 27th and 28th. The marathon will take place as scheduled; both the city and law enforcement officials are working together to ensure the safety of participants and spectators.
DuckTV News spoke to The Eugene Police Department’s Public Information Director, Melinda McLaughlin, on how they have been preparing:
“By doing a lot of exercising and having worked with our partners before in preparation for big events like the track and field Olympic trials, we’ve been more aware of the other resources they bring to the table and how to use them, communications between our partners. Who we can contact and also security plans and how those can go into effect and what the planning process can be to make it a little more seamless and a lot more secure.”
Although tensions are high after any type of terror, The Eugene Marathon Organization has been receiving great support from the Eugene community for the actions they are taking in order to ensure everyone’s safety. Eugene has proven to have some dedicated runners for the registration numbers have stayed consistent with the previous years, and no runners have dropped out of the race after The Boston Marathon bombings.
Eugene Marathon Race Director, Richard Maher, shares the feedback from the runners who have been working hard training for the marathon:
“Runner’s you know, having that personality, a little addictive, compulsive. They wanna get right back out there and start running again. Nothing is going to keep us from running… That’s what the terrorist want, you know. They want you to interrupt your life and quit doing the things you enjoy. That’s what terror is.”
While Eugene is busy trying to rid the community of the fear and unrest that the bombings have instigated, they are not forgetting to honor Boston along the way. The Eugene Marathon is sending Boston a banner with thoughts and prayers, having all participants wear black ribbons along with a moment of silence in honor of the victims.
DuckTV News got the opportunity to talk to a first hand source, Tom Titus, a fellow Oregonian who ran The Boston Marathon for the fifth time last week. Tom was at the scene to witness the chaos and confusion that followed the explosions:
“It wasn’t until minutes later that we could hear the sirens and emergency then there were emergency vehicles coming from everywhere. There was no panic around me and nobody understood what had happened in my immediate vicinity. People were on their phones but they had shut the cell phone towers down. Nobody was getting any information. Someone said it was a gas leak and an explosion but then we started seeing black cars with the tinted windows and I thought, not a gas leak.”
Boston police had their eye on two young brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 29, and 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Their suspicious activity, which aligned with the explosions, lead the foreign brothers to the top of the bombing suspect list. Early Friday morning, the brothers got in a violent firefight with the Boston police leaving Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar in their custody, but in critical condition.
Sources say that younger Tsarnaev’s condition has upgraded, allowing him to explain the motives of him and his brother’s actions. The power and complexity of the explosions in which public officials assumed were the makings of well-trained terrorists, but Dzhokhar reportedly told investigators that him and his brother devised the attack all from the internet.
Authorities believe the brothers were inspired to violence by the Internet preaching’s of al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, the charismatic American-born radical jihadist, because they used instructions from an al Qaeda Internet magazine to make their pressure cooker bombs.
While officials are still looking for all of the answers, Tom Titus has a message to the bombers:
“I felt as though the people who did that stole from a lot of people. And they stole a lot of things, they stole lives and they stole legs and they stole a lot of spirits.”
Watch the video here
Kelcie Goetsch, DuckTV News