Earlier today, I heard Kevin Cullen of The Boston Globe on the radio, giving a riveting, shot-by-shot description of the gun battle between Boston-area cops and the Tsarnaev brothers last Thursday night. It’s a great story, and Cullen tells it well in his column this morning. In fact, I don’t recall ever having read a more compelling story about cops in action in a newspaper. An excerpt:
Joe Reynolds is a young cop in Watertown, and last Friday he was driving, alone in his cruiser, when he saw them.
The bombing suspects.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar were in two cars, following each other closely.
Reynolds called it in.
Do not engage, the dispatcher told him. Not on your own.
The brothers pulled over. So did Reynolds. He didn’t know it, but he was about to interrupt the two as they tried, police believe, to transfer their crude, homemade explosives from one vehicle to another.
As Reynolds waited for backup, it felt like hours, but it was only minutes and that backup, in the form of Sergeant John MacLelland, was speeding up the street just as the Tsarnaevs turned and at least one of them opened up on Joe Reynolds. Reynolds threw his cruiser into reverse and sped backwards. He and MacLelland got out and began returning fire.
The suspects had to know they had only one chance if they were going to make their way to New York, perhaps to kill again. They had to shoot their way out. But the cavalry was on the way to ensure that would not happen. A bevy of Watertown, Boston, Transit, and State Police were rushing to help….
It’s not quite the same as hearing it in Cullen’s accent. But just pretend that when he writes “cops,” you’re hearing “cawps.” That will help…
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Thank god there are still some reporters out there.
Amen to that.
I read so much muddled, hard-to-follow crap in newspapers these days, to encounter something that clear and taut is a real treat.
But is it accurate? It reads well, for sure!
Yes, and here’s how you know: Hearing him talk on the radio, you can tell he knows some of these cops, which is why they talked to him, I’m gathering. If he got things wrong, he wouldn’t have that relationship.
I had already been thinking about this before reading this particular column…
When has there been a story like this — such a huge, hurried manhunt paralyzing an entire major city, with a running gun battle between lots of cops (and in this story, firemen) from different jurisdictions and the fugitives?
I can’t think of another one like it, any time recently. You find it in fiction — I’m somewhat reminded of the gun battle at the end of Tom Clancy’s “Patriot Games” — but seldom in real life.
So it’s a fantastic story to begin with. I’m glad that in this case, we have a writer who was equal to telling a key part of it.
Two of my favorite touches:
— The brothers, the cop and the fireman, who were both pulled into this drama.
— The fact that Boston cops got these guys, rather than feds or other experts from out of town. This happened in their town, on their streets, so it meant more to them.
And they knew the streets, which was crucial!
Interesting video from the FLIR (Forward Looking InfradRed) camera of the sole survivor of the bombing from the helicopter.
http://petapixel.com/2013/04/24/about-the-aerial-camera-that-spotted-the-second-boston-bombing-suspect/