Boston
Bill Richard placed a large wreath on the Boylston Street sidewalk where his 8-year-old son, Martin, died.
The boy was one of the three spectators killed when two bombs planted near the finish line exploded on April 15, 2013, spraying shrapnel into the crowds.
More than 260 others were wounded.
Richard stood Saturday with his wife, Denise, their daughter, Jane, and oldest son, Henry, in silence as bagpipers performed Amazing Grace. The Boston Globe reported he briefly hugged a family member of Lu Lingzi, a Boston University graduate student from China who was killed in the second blast.
The family of 29-year-old Krystle Campbell placed a second wreath about 200 yards away where the Medford native was killed in the first blast.
Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker took part in the wreath-laying ceremonies for what is now called “One Boston Day.”
Sean Collier, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, also was killed later while struggling with the bombers as they tried to steal his gun.
Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in an ensuing standoff with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted on federal charges and sentenced to death.
On the eve of the anniversary, volunteers planted thousands of daffodils along the marathon course in solidarity.
It was 2:49 p.m. when the bombs exploded on Boylston Street, 12 seconds and 210 yards apart. The Tsarnaev brothers, who had put them there, wanted to tear Boston apart.
Little did they know how much they would bring it together.
For Monday’s 26.2-mile run on a course the city expects more than 30,000 people to traverse, Boston isn’t mourning, somber or quiet.
It’s loudly celebrating.
“The race itself is, in many ways, a commemoration of what happened,” said T.K. Skenderian, a spokesman for the marathon, which will take place for the 121st time. “There is no moment of silence on marathon day.”
The runners will run, and the crowds will cheer them on, as they’ve done since 1897.
Saturday’s city holiday could be described as a huge coordinated community service festival. Volunteers honored Martin Richard, the youngest victim, by doing something he loved to do in his Dorchester neighborhood: picking up trash and planting flowers.
Firefighters and police were honored throughout the day.
And at 2:49 p.m., volunteers around the city paused for a moment of silence.
“The Boston Marathon is a key part of our city’s identity, and continues to show the world that Boston is strong, and our traditions will endure, no matter what,” Walsh said in a statement.
“The spirit of the day on April 15 shows the best of Boston: how Bostonians from all backgrounds come together to line the streets, celebrate one another and do good for their community.”
Meanwhile, new details about events leading up to the attacks emerged this past week.
The FBI had said previously that it had interviewed the elder brother, Tamerlan, two years before the bombings, but the agency did not disclose details about that interview until it released a report on the matter Monday.
In 2011, Tamerlan Tsarnaev told federal agents who visited him in Cambridge that he had “respect for all religions and feels that any religion makes your life better,” according to the report.
The FBI had investigated him after the Russian government suggested he was a “follower of radical Islam” and said he had planned to “join unspecified underground groups.”
But the FBI did not find Tsarnaev, who is believed to have in part been radicalized online, to be involved in “any terrorism activity.”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in after the bombings when he was shot by police in Watertown, Mass.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, survived, and was found guilty of attack in 2015. He is on death row at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison in Colorado.
The Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press contributed to this report.