Questions about lockdown Friday

To the editors:

We are Watertown residents who were locked down for an entire day this past Friday. A SWAT team visited our house at about 8:00 AM about ten blocks from where the suspect was eventually found.

Here's what we do not understand: According to news reports Tsarnaev abandoned the hijacked car at Lincoln and Spruce Streets. If this is true then why did it take twenty hours for him to be found hiding in a boat just two blocks away at the elbow of Franklin Street. We know from a friend who lives exactly across the street from the boat that their house was never searched by the SWAT teams during the day. In fact, we spoke with another friend on Franklin Street and they also were never approached by a SWAT team. Strangely enough another neighbor three blocks further west was contacted by SWAT. It appears that Franklin Street, again two blocks from where it's reported that Tsarnaev began his attempted escape on foot, simply was missed, skipped over by mismanagement of the search operation. This failure is extremely disturbing and there needs to be some accounting for the decisions for the implementation of the search.

People in Watertown are celebrating the success of the apprehension of the suspect. But instead this seems like a huge failure redeemed only by the good luck of a local resident blithely solving the case while putting himself in harm's way. Would we be feeling so self satisfied if Tsarnaev had the energy to shoot and kill the Franklin Street homeowner when he came out to check his boat? When the lockdown was lifted we went into our own backyard with our daughter to check things out. The SWAT team had come by earlier in the morning, so we felt little fear. But the Franklin Street house was never checked. The homeowner must have felt that since the lockdown was called off, that the suspect that been able to flee, perhaps long gone, miles away. But he was very wrong and probably only saved by the fact that Tsarnaev had been bleeding to death for twenty hours in his backyard while thousands of police and soldiers were either given the wrong orders, or did not execute their plan in a coordinated way.

What should have happened at the end of the day, as evening was approaching, was a redoubling of the search effort. How could we all go to sleep that night knowing that Tsarnaev was out there somewhere. The lockdown was lifted. "Be vigilant" the authorities cautioned. And then, minutes later a chance bit of luck from a house that was missed, and it was over.  Watching on TV that night we witnessed the State Police Commissioner, the FBI investigator, the Mayor of Boston, the Governor of Massachusetts, the Watertown Chief of Police, and more of those "in charge" congratulate themselves on how seamlessly they coordinated what proved to be a seriously flawed and failed operation.

Mike Mandel
Chantal Zakari