Boston Bombing Victim Instrumental in Identifying Terrorists

One of the more striking images from the Boston Marathon bombing was a photograph of a ashen hued, gravely  injured victim  being wheeled away from the terror site.

Carlos Arredondo assisting Jeff Bauman, at Boston Marathon Bombing
[photo credit : Charles Crupa/ AP]

Jeff Bauman, Jr.  is a 27 year old was waiting near the finish line to cheer on his girlfriend running in her first Boston Marathon.  After the first explosion, Bauman had lost both legs below the calf and his shirt was on fire. The man in the cowboy hat, Carlos Arredondo, stopped distributing flags, jumped over the fence and ran toward the victims laying on the ground.  Arredondo extinguished Bauman’s burning shirt with his hands, tore off a shirt to act as a tourniquet on a leg stump. Arredondo stayed with Bauman to comfort him until emergency workers reached the blast victim.

Bauman had to be resurrected during surgery as he had almost exsanguinated. Unfortunately, both of Bauman’s legs had to be amputated.  But while Bauman was still in intensive care on Tuesday under heavy sedation, he asked for paper and a writing utensil.  The patient wrote “bag, saw the guy, looked write at me.”  

When Bauman was put in contact with the FBI, he was able to describe the bomber as wearing “cap, sun glasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt.”  Bauman noted that he locked eyes with the terrorist who placed the backpack at the finish line.   This description was enough for law enforcement to eventually identify  Tamerlan Tsarnaev, suspect number 1.




As news broke out that Bauman was instrumental in identifying one of the terrorists, bloggers began a crowd-funding campaign to cover Bauman's medical costs, which had raised $160,000 by Friday afternoon. 

In addition, Jeff Bauman was visited at Boston Medical Center on Thursday by Silver Lining Playbook star Bradley Cooper and New England Patriots Receiver Julius Edelman.  The football player tweeted a photo with the Twitter message:  'Visited #survivor #stud #hero Jeffrey Bauman Jr. today. He was looking great and is a true inspiration. #strong'. 

Jeff Bauman, Jr. being visited by Bradley Cooper and Julius Edelman [photo credit: @Edelman11/Twitter]

After the hub of strange activity around the Boston Bombing and the the bloody manhunt which shut down Beantown on Friday, it is good to give fanfare for the common men like Bauman and Arrendondo who facilitated the capture of the terrorist bombers.  May there be more stories of heroics to bring ALL of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon Bombing to justice.