Arrest Prompts Changes To Boston Marathon Security
BOSTON (CBS) -- Boston Police Commissioner William Evans says patrols will be stepped up because of Tuesday night's incident.
Evans doesn't want another incident like Tuesday night, when a man with a history of psychological problems with a rice cooker in a back pack approached a crowd of people.
WBZ-TV cameras captured the barefoot 25-year-old Wakefield man stumbling along, just minutes before being arrested by police. A bystander also captured him in the middle of Boylston Street seconds before his arrest.
Video from WBZ shows marathon survivors gathered at the finish line when police are alerted by an unidentified man, that the individual is approaching.
Then, the video captures what appears to be a barefoot man being taken into custody.
"He went on the street. He had a back pack and within a minute, we were on him and we had the back pack down on the ground," Evans said Wednesday.
We showed several of the videos to former Boston Police Commissioner and WBZ security analyst Ed Davis.
"I did have a high ranking police official confide in me yesterday that one of the things that they are concerned about is copy cats," Davis said.
Davis says all security personnel will learn from the incident.
"I think they did exactly the right thing here, you would like to grab him before he got that close," Davis said. "And I think they will be looking at protocols for people who are acting out like this and to get them under control as quickly as possible."