Pictures of bag in front of Boston Marathon spectators

[Fawke Em]

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/10010384080855/exclusive-fbi-investigating-photo-that-shows-bag/

People seem to be focusing on that bag, but I noticed something in the background.

See the streetlight? Follow that back and you'll see a guy kind of standing by himself. In and of itself, that's not all that big of a deal UNTIL you see what's slung over his shoulder. A big, black duffel bag that looks like it's got some weight.

Any thoughts?

[HERVEPA]

1. Yes. You should soon be getting your junior detective badge.

[Brickbat]

2. Shut the thread down, we have our winner.

[Fawke Em]

6. I actually have a real one.

I covered cops for a newspaper for years.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

9. Does it make you feel good to try to belittle people?

Do you subscribe to that old idea that by belittling someone else, it serves as leverage for you, to make yourself look better? Well, that doesn't work. It just makes you appear to be cruel.

[Demo_Chris]

25. Why would you post something like that?

You are deliberately belittling someone for absolutely NO reason. I suspect you are better than this. You should apologize.

[Lex]

27. Aren't you special?

[femmocrat]

3. Except..... why would he be standing so close to the suspicious bag?

I'm sure the FBI are scrutinizing every pixel as we speak.

[Fawke Em]

7. Maybe that was before he set it down.

[Windy]

4. there is a black nylon bag outside of the barricade

In front of three people...a mother and her two children. The people depicted look like the boy that died and his mother based on tv reports and photos of the poor family.

[Fawke Em]

5. I noticed that, too.

But it doesn't look big enough to hold a pressure cooker.

[randome]

8. And that doesn't look like the blast site in the 2nd picture.

The first one looks more like ground zero.

[HiPointDem]

32. ? it's the same location, just a slightly different angle.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. People are making fun of you here, but I agree with you that that guy looks sketch

And he's is most certainly carrying a duffel bag with weight.

The problem with the image is that the blast clearly came from behind the spectators in all the other images, not in front of the barricade. The FBI has already said that these were 6qt pressure cookers placed in black duffel bags. That thing in the front there is paper grocery bags with plastic over it, or precisely what you would get to carry some water or sports drinks. I think you're right not to focus on that bag.

If it comes back that the police start focusing on that dude in the picture you've identified, I wouldn't be at all surprised. There's something off about the way he's standing there, for sure. Now, it could just be the context we know now, and maybe so, fine. But you're definitely right that he's in creep mode.

[Fawke Em]

15. They can make fun.

I was an investigative reporter who covered police and courts for 10 years. I know how to look for stand-outs and I know what cops look for.

What I noticed was the family that looks like the family so badly affected by this bombing (Mom, kids, etc.) and that bag isn't in front of them. However, that guy is near them.

[Gravitycollapse]

11. The bag is clearly still there after the blast. So it is not the source of the explosion.

[Sheldon Cooper]

12. Well, here are the actual pictures:

[kentuck]

14. Here it is blown up, so to speak:

[Triloon]

13. look at the barricade

Look at the barricade that is bent around the mailbox, which is bolted to the sidewalk. The explosion did not come from the street side of the barricade. So if the bag stayed where we see it in the first pic it could not have been the bomb. The photographer says there could be an hour between these two photos. I don't think the bag was the bomb.

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. Mailbox is tell tale too

Used to have a friend who would drop blockbusters into mailboxes. They're blow the bottom right out, punch the sides out. If a bomb of that magnitude went off directly next to that mailbox, it would be damaged beyond recognition. It's not even scratched. The bomb went off at least 10, 15 feet from that mailbox, closer to the buildings.

[Fawke Em]

18. I think they were bent as First Responders rushed in.

If you look at the first picture, you can see where two separate fences are clipped together and that's where it was opened - gate-like - when the rescuers rushed in.

But, we don't know how soon before the bomb that picture was taken. The duffel could have been set down and the person moved away from it in several minutes.

[catchnrelease]

17. Ok, I have a question

I saw these pictures earlier and was confused then too. If this is where the explosion took place, where are all the barricades and the stake fencing that the first responders were pulling away from in front of the victims immediately after the explosion? It seemed like there was some kind of metal scaffolding and a ton of stuff that the men were pulling back into the street so they could get to the injured. Has it just been removed in the second photo, but the photo seems to be right after the explosion, so it seems like there should still be barricades close by. And none of that stuff is even in the before photo. Maybe it's a different view or something?

I'm not suggesting that this means anything pertaining to where the bomb was placed etc. I was trying to make sense of how these photos look with what I saw in the video of the first explosion yesterday. It seems to me that the bomb would have been placed behind the spectators vs at the curb or more of the runners/race workers would have been hurt.

[Fawke Em]

19. The fence was at the second location.

[catchnrelease]

20. Thanks!

That makes sense. I was going to go back and try to find the video and see if I had pictured it all wrong.

[Fawke Em]

23. I should say that the fence was at the first location... if that helps you.

The fence was at the location everyone saw bombed. This is at the second location that we only saw bombed from a distance.

[catchnrelease]

26. Yes, that does help

Perfectly clear now, thanks again.

[FreeState]

21. Overhead picture of same from today - the bag was not the bomb

Notice the dark ring around the tree? Thats blood, in the center is the bombs most likely placement.

[uppityperson]

22. Could simply be a messenger bag. If you mean the guy in the light shirt. Looks like a cross body

strap like on my messenger bag.

[winter is coming]

24. My first thought is that if I were trying to drop a bag unobtrusively,

I wouldn't leave it outside the fence. I guess I'd meander to the location, somewhere behind the fence where I wanted to leave it, put it down as if I were tired of carrying it, and wait a while before meandering off.

My second thought is that the guy you're referring to could be doing anything.

[kentuck]

28. This photo on Morning Joe....

...this morning.

[JHB]

29. Keep in mind that there's about an hour or more between the 1st and 2nd photo...

...according to the person who took it, as stated in the story.

If that's the case, then there was time for the crowd to shift, people to move on, go off to meet a runner they knew who had already passed by and finished the race, etc. If the bag in question belonged to someone like that, who'd just set it down for a bit during the timeframe in which the first photo was taken, they'd have taken their bag with them.

[kentuck]

30. Someone could have walked up to the mailbox..

...taken out a pressure cooker wrapped in a plastic bag and just left it there. A plastic bag is not suspicious. Anyone might think he would come back and get it or they would ignore it completely in the excitement. No big deal.

[JHB]

31. It's all remote- and amateur-speculation at this point

The actual investigators know where the blast point was, and whether or not it was at that bag's location.

[4_TN_TITANS]

33. The guy fleeing the scene

It looked like his pants were shredded, from the blast I would assume. Unless it was a failed mass murder/suicide attempt, I would guess he was just another victim that had a different reaction.

[Union Scribe]

36. I read on another thread that the torn-pants guy is the injured Saudi man

I'm not sure if they were speculating or if he'd been IDed, lemme see if I can find it.

[Union Scribe]

38. Here's what I was reading:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10022693302

The Daily Mail piece seems to be about the same scene as the one in this OP, too

[blogslut]

34. I stole this from Gawker

link: http://gawker.com/5994892/your-guide-to-the-boston-marathon-bombing-amateur-internet-crowd+sleuthing

[Fawke Em]

35. Looks more like Boston beans.

[uppityperson]

37. EXCELLENT! Thank you.