Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick spent Wednesday at local hospitals visiting victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. He met with Denise and Bill Richard, the parents of 8-year old Martin Richard, who died in the blast.
“This is a wonderful family surrounded by a very loving community, and we have all felt their loss,” said Gov. Patrick.
The Richard’s daughter Jane had surgery for her leg Wednesday and her mother, Denise, is in stable condition. The governor told msnbc’s Lawrence O’Donnell, “She’s feeling all those layers of emotion both sense of loss and the importance of rallying for Henry and Jane and Bill and for herself.”
Governor Patrick became emotional when discussing a photo of Martin. “When I spoke to Bill yesterday, he reminded me about a photograph he has of Martin when he was only 2 or 3 years old holding a campaign sign.”
“I think they have a very, very clear sense of how Martin in particular and the family in general have become a symbol about what has happened and a touch point for all of our grief. And they love that and they are daunted by it at the same time, as a person would be,” added Gov. Patrick.
The bombs in Boston also took the lives of two other victims: a 29-year-old woman, Krystle Campbell, and a Boston University graduate student and Chinese citizen, Lu Lingzi.
An interfaith prayer service called “Healing Our City” will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday morning. Invited guests will include victims’ families, first responders, medical personnel, government officials, business leaders, and others.
President Obama and Michelle Obama are scheduled to attend the service, which be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston’s South End. A source close to Mitt Romney confirmed to NBC News that Romney will attend the service as well.
As the FBI tells NBC News that the investigation has found some promising leads, including video footage of someone carrying a heavy backpack or duffel bag and placing it at the spot where the second bomb exploded, and evidence obtained from a security camera on top of the Lord and Taylor department store on Boylston Street, the heart of the crime scene location. The FBI has distributed to federal law enforcement agencies a surveillance photo of a man wearing a baseball cap at the scene of the bombing, asking officials if they have any information about his identity, a senior federal law enforcement official who has seen the photo told NBC News. The official who has seen the photo described it as showing a man about six feet tall wearing “a white or off white baseball cap.” The FBI was asking for help identifying the individual, the official said. FBI specialists led by the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Boston are examining blood-covered zipper, BB’s and nails, a dented Tenergy battery used to power toy cars and trucks, orange and black wires, shredded nylon parts, and a green circuit board used to trigger the bombs. The lid of the first pressure cooker bomb was found on the rooftop of the Charlesmark Hotel and was discovered by a hotel guest. Authorities told NBC News that investigators have a face, but not the name, of someone seen on camera dropping a black bag near the second blast site. An official says investigators are “zeroing in on some people.” Watch msnbc’s Lawrence O’Donnell’s interview with Michael Isikoff, NBC News National Investigative Correspondent, and a former special agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, James Cavanaugh, below to find out the latest details on the investigation.
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