Report says coordination broke down in final hours of hunt for Boston Marathon bombers

BOSTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Boston's excellent response to the Marathon bombing broke down in the hours before the arrest of Dzhokar Tsarnaev, a report released Thursday said.

"Why Was Boston Strong?" was prepared by the Program on Crisis Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School. It found that officials and police responded well immediately after two bombs exploded at the Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013, killing three people and injuring more than 200.

The authors said their goal is not to assign credit or blame, but to examine how police and other emergency services can improve their response to emergencies at "fixed" events like the Marathon and to "no notice" emergencies. They cite the final day of the manhunt for Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the alleged bombers, as a "no notice" event that began April 18, when a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was killed and ended almost 24 hours later when Dzhokar was arrested.

"Much of the response went very well, and a great deal of that was the result of extensive and careful planning, years of investments and training, structure, skill- and relationship- and trust-building (together with some good fortune)," the report said. "Indeed, the strength actually went well beyond Boston, with a great deal of help drawn from the greater Boston metropolitan area, and a considerable amount from outside the region."

In the minutes and hours after the bombing, the well-coordinated response saved lives, the report said, with those who had been injured most seriously on their way to hospitals within minutes. People on the scene, including those at the Marathon's medical tents, helped by pitching in with emergency medical help.

But coordination appears to have broken down in the early morning of April 19, when an SUV allegedly carjacked by the brothers was located in Watertown, which neighbors Boston. That eventually led to a gun battle, which ended with Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead -- probably hit by the SUV as his brother fled the scene -- and Dzhokar missing.

That evening, a Watertown resident found Dzhokar Tsarnaev hiding under a boat in his backyard. The 20-year-old former college student is now awaiting trial in federal court and could face the death penalty if convicted.

During the final hours, police officers tended to act as individuals and put their comrades and the public at risk. One factor was exhaustion, the report said.

"By the end of the law enforcement pursuit and apprehension of the second suspect on Friday evening, many of the people managing the overall event generally, and the Watertown event specifically, had been awake for 36 or more hours and had more generally been sleep deprived since Monday’s bombing," the report said.

[Harvard Kennedy School]