On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people died at the scene, sixteen people lost limbs, and hundreds of others were wounded.
For several days, news coverage was nonstop. Boston residents were ordered to stay indoors as the manhunt for suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar played out on live television.
Imagine our surprise, one afternoon, when we heard this announcement on CNN:
Tonight on AC360°, Anderson Cooper speaks to Marvin Salazar, a young man who knew one of the bombing suspects, as well as one of the victims.
"Did you hear that?" I exclaimed. "Do you think that could be our Marvin?" In high school, Marvin had played soccer with my kids and been a frequent visitor in our home. Naturally, we tuned into CNN that evening, and sure enough, there he was, all grown up, being interviewed live by Anderson Cooper near the site of the bombing.
(Note: If the embedded video doesn't work, you can see it on the Best of CNN website.)
I remember being impressed by how calm, prepared, and mature Marvin seemed. He didn't look nervous at all. His answers were eloquent and thoughtful. Most striking was how he stuck to the truth of his experience -- that he had known and liked both the accused bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and the young woman who was killed, Krystle Campbell. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." Marvin was not someone who offered pat explanations or easy answers.
Near the end of the interview, he mentions that his uncle worked nearby at the Fairmont Copley Hotel, which shows how the adult Marvin stayed close to his extended family. And we learn that he had already worked for three years in the restaurant industy, a career that was soon to take him around the world.
So, what effect did this strange coincidence, and the entire traumatic Marathon event, have on 21-year-old Marvin? If he ever discussed it with you, or if you have any memories or insights into how it affected his outlook on life, we'd like to add more to this story.
--Mary Dean