In the hours after two bombs detonated near the marathon finish line on Boylston Ave., runners and spectators came together, amidst the chaos and confusion of the scene, in common support.
Ajay Zutshi sat on Arlington St. long after the race ended, waiting for friends to pick him up but barely able to move his legs. Zutshi, who never reached the finish line, expressed shock at the incident. "As far as American cities go, Boston is one of the safest," he said. "Things like this don't happen in Boston."
"I feel like whoever did this is trying to scare us, but I don't think that's going to happen," said marathoner Ken Little after he had been reunited with his family. "I think it's going to have the opposite effect."
MIT fraternity Phi Kappa Theta, located just blocks from where the two bombs detnoated, opened its doors to marathon runners throughout the afternoon. "The house shook and it sounded like a big thunderclap, so I thought it was a passing thunderstorm," recalled fraternity member Naren Tallapragada. "About 10 seconds later, I heard another explosion, and then I heard people shouting and screaming outside. That's when I think we all realized."
"We decided to let people in because the situation was pretty chaotic at the time — we didn't know really what was going on, and then we took out some water," said former fraternity president James Noraky.
