Series Review: "American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing" (2023)

From the director of Untold: Malice at the Palace comes American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing. This documentary film directed by Floyd Russ. The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing paralyzed a great American city on what was supposed to be its happiest day. Ten years later, this three-part series delves into the massive manhunt that followed the tragedy, as remembered by the law enforcement officials who brought the bombers to justice and the survivors caught in the crossfire.

On April 15, 2013, the domestic terrorist attack, The Boston Marathon bombing, took place during the annual Boston Marathon. Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, which detonated near the finish line of the race fourteen seconds and two-hundred and ten yards (one-hundred and ninety m) apart. Three people were killed and hundreds injured, including seventeen who lost limbs. Three days later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released images of two suspects. They were later identified as the Tsarnaev brothers, who were Chechen Kyrgyzstani-Americans. Following their identification, they killed an MIT policeman, then kidnapped a man in his car. They had a shootout with the police in nearby Watertown, during which two officers were severely injured (one of whom, Dennis Simmonds, died a year later). Tamerlan was shot several times, and his brother Dzhokhar ran him over while escaping in the stolen car. Tamerlan died soon after. An unprecedented manhunt for Dzhokhar ensued, with thousands of law enforcement officers searching a twenty-block area of Watertown. Residents of Watertown and surrounding communities were asked to stay indoors, and the transportation system and most businesses and public places closed. After a Watertown resident discovered Dzhokhar hiding in a boat in his backyard, the fugitive was shot and wounded by police before being taken into custody. During questioning, Dzhokhar said that he and his brother were motivated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that they were self-radicalized and unconnected to any outside terrorist groups, and that he was following his brother's lead. He said they learned to build explosive devices from the online magazine of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He also said they had intended to travel to New York City to bomb Times Square. He was convicted of thirty charges, including use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. Two months later, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. A writ of certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court of the United States, which considered the questions of whether the lower court erred in vacating the death sentence. After hearing arguments as United States v. Tsarnaev, the Court upheld the death penalty, reversing the First Circuit Court's decision.

It was pure madness and there was plenty of blame to go around - but the series does a journalistically sound job of putting events in perspective. It could have happened anywhere, it happened to happen at the 2013 Boston Marathon. And hopefully it never happens again.

Simon says American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing receives:

Also, see my review for Untold: Malice at the Palace.