A Windsor man is in lockdown in Boston as thousands of police and security officers hunt for one of two suspects still wanted in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings.
Michael-Anthony Ferrato is on exchange at Harvard University, while doing a chemistry masters for the University of Windsor. He’s there for four months.
“Harvard is closed today, it’s on lockdown. So I work in a chemistry lab and got an email from people saying don’t come in to work today,” says Ferrato. “And another (email) from Harvard admin saying ‘Harvard is closed, stay home and wait for further updates.’”
Ferrato says he lives just off campus on Massachusetts Avenue, which is a street that runs through both Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The former University of Windsor lancers baseball player lives a couple miles north of the Harvard campus.
“Generally it’s a really busy street in Cambridge and this morning it’s been just pretty much dead except for the few emergency vehicles,” says Ferrato.
He says there was increased security presence on campus since the bombings on Monday, but other than that it was fairly normal for the last couple of days.
“Well honestly other than the increased security presence it’s really been business as usual,” says Ferrato. “Now that we’re on lockdown, obviously it’s a different atmosphere now.”
Businesses have been asked not to open and the public transit system has been shut down across the metropolitan area. Residents have been asked not to open their doors to anyone except clearly identified police officers.
The other bombing suspect died overnight after a standoff with police. One transit officer was wounded and an MIT security officer was killed in the violence.
University of Windsor worker Alisa Giroux-Souliere is also in Boston this week attending a social media conference. Her hotel and conference is its minutes away from the MIT campus.
“It went from a very busy, bustling campus community to very quick all of a sudden,” she says.
Giroux-Souliere heard the sirens late Thursday night. She said there was a big rush towards MIT campus and lots of vehicles going in that direction.
“I wish I had went to bed thinking MIT is nothing,” says Giroux-Souliere. “But being a follower on social media, I looked to see what MIT and within 10 minutes of the shooting they were tweeting that the campus was on lockdown. Being so close, I was concerned that this hotel was on lockdown as well.”
Giroux-Souliere says she had a very uneasy sleep Thursday night. She attended one last session of her conference Friday inside her hotel and then headed for Logan International Airport to see if she could fly home.
“The hotel is checking people’s ID’s outside of the building before they can even enter, just to ensure that they are guests,” she says.
Ferrato says he learned of the MIT campus security guard’s death Friday morning.
“It definitely hits close to home,” he says.
When news of the bombings at the Boston Marathon first broke on Monday, Ferrato says he was actually one of the first people to find out about it in his lab.
“I remember informing everyone in the lab what was going on and their faces, just you know shock and apprehension just because some of them had family and friends that they knew were at the race,” says Ferrato.
With files from CTVNews.ca
