Jeff Bauman: Boston Bombings Victim Helped Identify Suspects

Impact

As the manhunt for the two bombers of the Boston Marathon continues, increasing information is being provided about the suspects: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as well as the way that the two suspects were identified. 

The most surprising part of the finding of the bombers was perhaps their identification by a victim. Jeff Bauman, whose picture immediately after the attacks was widely circulated, showing his major injuries (both of his legs were amputated), helped to identify the bombers, which made a vital difference in their tracking by the police. As his brother reports to Gawker:

"He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me.'"

The Atlantic Wire follows up with reporting  from Asjylyn Loder and Esmé E. Deprez, who said that Jeff Bauman saw the bombers drop the bags that contained the pressure cooker bombs directly at his feet, and told the police about it as soon as he was lucid enough to do so.

The information, while it has not been confirmed or yet reported on by the FBI, may have been some of the defining material needed in order to ascertain which people to track in the video footage of the Marathon.