South Florida Man Named Hero After Boston Bombing
MIAMI (CBS4) – After a long day of mayhem, with reporters and police at odds on whether the person responsible for the Boston bombing had been arrested or not; a South Florida man said that the event hit him a little too close to home.
First, police released surveillance video from the marathon bomb site which left three people dead and more than 170 injured. They described a man dressed in black wearing a baseball cap and on a cell phone when the first explosion went off.
Shortly thereafter, several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified and taken into custody. But FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Boston denied the claim and said no arrests had been made leaving many media agencies with egg on their face having to recant previous reporting.
Police and FBI have been begging the public for any pictures or video they had from the scene, hoping to get a better glimpse of the subject. They even showed up to the home of Carlos Arredondo.
"I got a little bruising on my leg, only thank God it wasn't that much," said Arrendondo.
Arredondo is the man, who, back in 2004 when he lived in Hollywood, set fire to the van of three marines who showed up to tell him his son Alex was killed in Iraq. His sadness became worse two years ago when his son Brian committed suicide.
Arredondo now lives in Boston and was at the run when the bomb exploded; he said that he had been cheering on people who were running in memory of his sons.
Arredondo has been labeled a hero around the world. He is known for being the cowboy hat-wearing man who rushed in to rescue those injured in the explosion including a man who lost parts of both of his legs. Police and FBI even wanted to speak to him.
"Yesterday the Boston police was here and they took my sneakers, my pants, my clothes; which is normal routine," said Arredondo.
The FBI showed up to Arredondo's home asking what he called more routine questions and for pictures he took near the blast.
"They took a bag or personal items to have them going to the lab to do their job, which I'm very glad they did," said Arredondo.
