Busy day for Boston courthouse: Bulger and Tsarnaev under same roof
It was a busy day for Boston's Moakley Federal Courthouse security Wednesday, with two high-profile federal cases under the same roof: Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and reputed mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev arrived in an armored vehicle for his arraignment and very first public court appearance Wednesday afternoon. He is accused of being one of two main suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260 in April and has already been indicted on criminal charges that included using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use.
In an adjacent courtroom earlier in the day was Bulger, who was arrested two years ago in Santa Monica after nearly 20 years on the run. Bulger is on trial for racketeering and murder.
As tense as things were inside the courthouse, there was also quite a scene outside: gaggles of reporters, demonstrators, and of course, more police than on a usual day at 1 Courthouse Way.
Police set up metal barriers and K9 unit dogs patrolled outside the building. A number of different agencies were assisting -- federal officials, the Boston Police Department, the courthouse's own staff. Reuters reports that in addition to at least a dozen cars and trucks, a Boston Police boat waited close to the building's side entrance. This picture of CBS affiliate WBZ reporter Beth Germano shows some of the chaos outside:
So does this raw video taken by The Associated Press:
Among the two high-profile defendants, Tsarnaev attracted the most new spectators. Bulger was already in the 18th day of his trial while Tsarnaev was making his public debut.
According to CBS affiliate WBZ, a group of demonstrators stood outside with signs that read "Free Jahar" (another spelling for Dzhokhar) and claimed the 19-year-old had been framed.
Pictures snapped by Boston Globe reporter David Abel show a long line of people trying to get into the arraignment. They included family members of the victims, WBZ's Lauren Leamancyk. According to WBZ's Germano, the 110 seats in courtroom 10 was not nearly enough to accommodate all the spectators.
Outside, MIT police officers came to honor Sean Collier, an officer that Tsarnaev allegedly killed during the manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects.
For reporters, the proximity of the two events was a two-for-one deal: One location, two stories. WBZ's Jim Armstrong simply walked from one story to the next: