Top Cop Foregoes Boston Marathon Run to Focus on Security
Police Commissioner Evans says “overseas turmoil” trumps personal milestone.
BOSTON — -- Boston Police Commissioner William Evans will not run the Boston Marathon next month – which would have been his 50th marathon – opting to “keep the city safe” rather than mark a personal milestone, following a string of international terror attacks.
“I was looking forward to it, but after the turmoil overseas, I felt I had to be fully focused on the security of the Boston Marathon,” Evans told ABC News today, referring to recent terrorist attacks including the triple bombing in Brussels, Belgium last week that claimed 35 lives.
A longtime runner, Evans has run 49 marathons to date, including running the Boston Marathon 19 times. The last time he crossed the Boston Marathon’s finish line, however, was on April 15, 2013, the day that brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev detonated two pressure cooker bombs secreted in backpacks amid spectators crowded along Boylston Street. The attack killed three and wounded more than 260 others.
Evans had already finished the race and was soaking sore muscles in a jacuzzi at a gym in his South Boston neighborhood when another BPD detective alerted him to the attack. Then a BPD Superintendent, Evans launched himself into the center of the around-the-clock manhunt for the bombers.
Three days later the Tsarnaevs murdered MIT police officer Sean Collier before being caught in a firefight with police in Boston’s Watertown suburb. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed, but Dzhokhar survived and was captured hours later. Dzhokhar was convicted of 30 charges related to the deadly blasts and was sentenced to death in 2015. He is currently being held in a maximum security facility in Colorado.
Evans said while there is no specific threat against Boston this year, the city will see a visible uptick in police presence, long lines at security checkpoints, and undercover officers will also be in place along the 26.2 mile route. Personal-use drones are "strongly discouraged" and spectators are being asked to use clear bags for personal belongings.
Michele McPhee is a freelance journalist and frequent ABC News contributor based in Boston.
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