Boston prays, plays and remembers on a Sunday of renewal - Los Angeles Times
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Boston prays, plays and remembers on a Sunday of renewal

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<i>This post has been updated. See the note below for details.</i>

BOSTON -- After citywide demonstrations of resilience on Saturday, Boston will pause Sunday in prayer as it ends a week of shock, grief and anxiety that began Monday with the marathon bombings.

“I don’t know that we’ll ever be quite the same,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “People are moving out and moving back into their regular routines, but vigilance is still the order of the day and of course we’re still trying to heal from a shocking tragedy less than a week away.”

One of three victims at the marathon blast site, Krystle M. Campbell, will be buried Monday in nearby Medford. A memorial service for Lu Lingzi will be held Monday at Boston University, where she was a graduate student. Services for 8-year-old Martin Richard have yet to be made public.

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An interfaith prayer service is planned near the blast sites Sunday and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley will offer mass at the Catholic archdiocese’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross “for the repose of the souls” of the three bombing victims and the MIT police officer who died in the manhunt that followed.

The investigation continues into Monday’s attack and the violent confrontation with law enforcement that followed, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, flying from Washington to Tel Aviv, told reporters that he had seen no evidence of ties between the two suspects and organized terrorist organizations. But he also stressed that the probe into the suspects’ planning was still underway.

“I have not seen any intelligence that would make such a link, but as you know, all of the facts are not in,” said Hagel, who arrived in Israel Sunday. “All of the dynamics and intelligence is not complete. And until we know that, until we get more pieces, we won’t be able to answer some of those questions.”

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Law enforcement officials are scouring hard drives that belonged to the suspects, tracking their activities online and interviewing scores of friends, family and associates, seeking to determine if the suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had any accomplices or contacts with extremist groups in Russia. The two men, who are ethnic Chechens, came to the United States from Russia about a decade ago.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother, Tamerlan, 26, are the only suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. The older brother died in a violent encounter with Watertown police and the younger one was found hiding in a boat in a Watertown backyard after a massive manhunt.

The surviving suspect is being treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. According to federal law enforcement officials, Tsarnaev was shot in the neck and, at least for a while, was being treated with a tube down his throat, making it impossible for agents to talk to him.

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FBI Special Agent Greg Comcowich announced Sunday that Tsarnaev remains in serious condition.

A hospital spokeswoman said local law enforcement officials may hold a briefing later Sunday but had no further details. An FBI official said that the agency had no plans for a news conference.

On Sunday, 10 bombing victims remained at Beth Israel. At Boston Medical Center, 15 were still hospitalized, while nine remain at Massachusetts General Hospital, five at Tufts Medical Center and two at Boston Children’s Hospital. The number at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was not immediately available.

[Updated, 9:35 a.m. PDT April 21: Massachusetts General Hospital said one bombing victim had been discharged since Saturday, reducing the number still at the hospital to nine.]

Boylston Street in the heart of downtown, where the brothers allegedly planted two explosives made with pressure cookers, remained closed Sunday morning. But makeshift memorials continued to grow near the fences surrounding the blockade near the marathon finish line.

On Saturday night, thousands gathered in Wilmington, Mass., for a candlelight vigil in the hometown of Sean Collier, the MIT police officer who was killed allegedly by the suspects on Thursday night.

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Earlier in the day Saturday, a city on edge found relief at the ballpark. As the Red Sox returned to Fenway Park for the first time since the bombings, fans saw moving pre-game tributes and a surprise, in-person rendition of “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond.

Better still: The Sox came from behind in the eighth inning to notch a 4-3 victory.

“I think that we needed this,” said Mary Ann Symanski, 55, of North Hatfield. “The whole state of Massachusetts needed this.”

The Red Sox play a double-header Sunday; the Bruins hockey team also has another home game.

ALSO:

Boston Bruins fans at Saturday’s game: Relieved but vigilant

Red Sox game: Neil Diamond live -- ‘So good, so good, so good’

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Boston suspects threw pressure-cooker bomb at police, officials say

Staff writers Shashank Bengali, Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Michael J. Mishak and Richard A. Serrano contributed to this report.

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