Terrorists among us ... double amputee victim saw bomber drop bag at his feet

Americans woke Friday morning to an on-going manhunt in Boston that had unfolded overnight with one terrorist dead and the other on the run. Brothers. Immigrants. The 26-year-old brother is dead ... the 19-year-old brother is being pursued by law enforcement. Boston is on lock-down.

Out of the heart-breaking stories that came out of the bombings on Monday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Patriots Day, one image that remains is of the young man who had both legs blown off below the knees, seated in a wheelchair with mangled bones where his legs and feet should have been, being rushed to a waiting ambulance.

He saw the man who did that to him. From Bloomberg comes this:

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 have helped 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.

This latest chapter in the war on terrorism -- in man's inhumanity to his fellow man -- is continuing to unfold. A 26-year-old M.I.T. police officer is dead, killed by the terrorists in the wee hours of Friday morning, and a Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority officer, reportedly a graduate of Lexington's Virginia Military Institute Class of 2002, is in critical condition. The Roanoke Times is reporting the VMI grad is Richard "Dic" Donohue, 33.

An interesting side note: my Richmond sister's neighbor ran in the Boston Marathon and filmed the last three minutes of her journey as she crossed the finish line. She filmed mostly to her left side where her mother and a friend waited ... and that happened to be where one of the bombs was located. The footage was shaky as would be expected from the hands of a runner, and the ladies were safely away from the area when the bomb went off 10-15 minutes later. The FBI used her footage along with all the other that was turned in to help track down the suspects.

Watching Boston this morning is surreal ... no one is on the streets except police and journalists ... gunshots, gun battles, police everywhere ... sirens, and now gun shots have been heard again at 10:45 a.m. Prayers for the safety of those law enforcement officers....