BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Martin Richard, the youngest of the three people killed at the 2013 Boston Marathon, in many ways, has become the face of this awful tragedy.
The 8-year-old and his family were standing at a police barricade in front of the Forum Restaurant when the second bomb exploded. The blast killed Martin, and badly injured his sister Jane, and his mother Denise. His brother Henry and father William were also hurt.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is accused of planting that bomb right behind the Richard family. At US District Court in South Boston Thursday, William, sitting just feet away from Tsarnaev, testified to the horror unleashed on his family.
William said he remembers hearing the first blast, blocks away and called it thunderous. And then, he said, time stood still.
As he was stepping over the metal barricade to carry his children onto Boylston Street, the second bomb blasted. It was an ear piercing sound. He said the smell was vile, gunpowder, sulphur and burning hair. His son Henry ran to him and asked if the explosions were really happening.
William could see his daughter, Jane, on the sidewalk. Her leg was "blown off." He picked her up, as Henry clung to him, shielded the eyes of his children, and brought them across the street to an ambulance. Then, he returned to find his wife, Denise, with a severe eye injury standing over Martin, who was near death.
William told Denise he needed to take the kids to Children's Hospital.
"I looked at Martin for the last time, and I went across the street," he said.
At the hospital, William said the ER looked like a scene from a movie.
"It's not good when you see the look of horror on doctor's faces," he said in court.
Later, at Beth Israel Hospital where Denise was being treated, William remembers his wife giving him the awful news. She told him Martin was dead. William said he already knew.
William admitted he suffered hearing loss, but was quick to tell the court: "I can still hear your voice, I can still hear music, I can still hear the beautiful voices of my family."
Tsarnaev is facing 30 charges in the bombings and the shooting death days later of an MIT police officer. Seventeen of the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Cox Media Group
