BOSTON (AP) — Boston marked eight years since the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon killed three people and injured scores of others on Thursday with quiet moments of reflection and small acts of kindness.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey visited fire stations that had been critical in the response to the attack, as well as the memorials marking the spots where the two pressure cooker bombs detonated near the downtown finish line of the storied race.
Church bells tolled to mark a citywide moment of silence at 2:49 p.m., the time when the first bomb detonated, followed seconds later by the second explosion a few hundred yards away.
Janey observed the moment outside city hall. The city’s first female and Black mayor then joined Gov. Charlie Baker to lay a wreath at the site where 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, 23-year-old Lingzi Lu, and 8-year-old Martin Richard died.
The city marks each April 15 with “ One Boston Day,” a day where acts of kindness and service are meant to honor victims, survivors and first responders.
Janey and others encouraged Bostonians to make more modest gestures this year, as the large community service projects that had become a hallmark of the day were cancelled for another year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I hope you’ll join us to spread kindness however you can, whether that means donating to a charity responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting a small business in your neighborhood, or checking in on an older neighbor,” the mayor said in a statement. “The positive impact we can achieve together is more important than ever as we ensure that the City of Boston reopens safely and equitably, with recovery and renewal in every neighborhood.”
The U.S. Supreme Court last month said it’ll consider reinstating the death sentence against marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after a federal appeals court tossed out the penalty last summer.
Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, also fatally shot MIT Police Officer Sean Collier in Cambridge in the ensuring manhunt.
The Boston Marathon is traditionally held on the third Monday of April, a holiday known as Patriots Day in Massachusetts. It was held virtually last year and has been moved to October this year because of the ongoing pandemic.
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