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BOSTON continued
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throughout the crowd. Three people
were killed and more than 170 were
injured. Several victims lost their
legs in the blasts.
"It was a very close call," Schultz
says during a phone interview on
Monday, April 22. "I felt dreadful
and cold. The hairs stuck up on the
back of my neck immediately after
we found out from my girlfriend's
mother that it was the finish line
where the explosion was."
A manhunt for the culprits start
ed almost immediately, eventually
shutting down one of the country's
largest cities.
Although he was
not standing right
there when the
bombs went off and
was not injured,
Schultz says going
through the experi
ence was still eerie
and something he
will never forget.
"It was a very scary
event," he says. "Ev
erything that went
down last Monday,
just being so close
to it, that's probably
the scariest thing
I have ever experi
enced in my life.
"We were right
across the street
from where that
first explosion was
right by the finish
line. Thankfully,
we walked a couple
blocks away in the wrong direction
to find and meet up with some other
friends."
Despite leaving the finish line
area, they were still close enough
to hear the explosions. Phone calls
from other friends and people run
ning in the streets confirmed that
the explosions were not a good thing
as some people originally thought.
Since it was also Patriot's Day in
Massachusetts, some said they first
thought the explosions could have
been celebratory cannon fire.
"After my girlfriend's mother
called us to tell us and asked us if
we were OK, that there were explo-
3
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sions at the finish line, all of us kind
of turned silent. It was a very eerie
feeling and our immediate reaction
was to get out of the city. It was like
fight-or-flight mode."
Schultz says they were unsure if
more bombs might explode in other
parts of the city.
"I'll tell you what, my emotions
wanted to kick in, but my body
wouldn't let them. All of us were very
stone-faced, just walking, trying to get
back to our cars as quickly as possible.
It was a crazy feeling and something
that I have never felt before."
Schultz says he could feel the
whole vibe of the city transform
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Photos by Jordon Schultz
Tribal member Jordon Schultz
and his girlfriend, Kendal Kubitz,
attended the Boston Red Sox game
vs. the Tampa Bay Rays in Fenway
Park on Monday, April 1 5, the day
of the bomb explosions at the finish
line of the Boston Marathon.
While walking back to his car parked
near Fenway Park following the
explosions at the finish line of the
Boston Marathon, Tribal member
Jordon Schultz took photos of the
line of emergency vehicles trying to
reach the site. Schultz, his girlfriend
and two other friends were at the
finish line about 10 minutes before
the bombs exploded and left to go
in search of other friends.
after the explosions and as the
news spread across the city, state
and country.
"It was very eerie watching the
mood of the entire city change from
everything is going on, it's a normal,
great, patriotic, celebratory day to
everyone huddling around TV sets
at the nearest restaurant on the
corner and being just shocked.
People were in tears, sitting on the
sides of the roads."
As the manhunt for the perpe
trators narrowed to two suspects
- brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev the city of Boston shut
down on Friday., April 19.
Although they do not live in Bos
ton proper, Schultz said his and his
girlfriend's jobs at a nearby mall
were affected.
"My girlfriend and I had to work
at a local mall and not only were
businesses not opening up in the
mall because there were managers
who could not open up their stores
because they were in the area
where the lockdown was and people
were told to stay in their homes,
but they ended up sending us home
just because both of our companies
ended up telling our managers that
they wanted to be safe."
When news arrived late on Fri
day that Tamerlan was dead and
Dzhokhar was in police custody,
Schultz said he felt "joy, satisfac
tion, overall happiness. I was ec
static when I found out that they
had arrested him."
Schultz, who used to work at
Portland radio station KXL 750
AM, moved to Boston in August
to be near his girlfriend, who has
family in Framingham, about 20
miles outside of the city, and to look
for work. He currently is employed
by Solaris, a cell phone company.
He is the son of Kevin and Julie
Schultz, and the grandson of An
nabelle Ham.
Schultz says he still thinks back
to the seven minutes or so that
could have changed his life.
He acknowledges that if he had
stayed at the finish line for much
longer, he and his friends might
not have been around to conduct an
interview. Or, he says, "I might be
talking to you from a hospital bed
with shrapnel in me, or missing a
foot or a leg.
"I have to say, I didn't even go
through the worst of it. My experi
ence was so frightening and scary
and awful, but I didn't experience
nearly what thousands of other
people experienced. I can't even be
lieve the heartbreak they're going
through right now and what they're
having to deal with to get back to
normal lives. My heart goes out to
them. I was scared, but I and the
people I was with didn't go through
anything nearly as terrorizing as
the people who were closer."
Schultz says he still thinks about
the fact that he might have walked by
the Tsarnaev brothers while he was
milling around the marathon finish
line area as they carried their home
made bombs in black backpacks.-
"One of the surveillance cameras
that they keep talking about in
front of Lord & Taylor is the store
that I was at," he says. "I was tell
ing my girlfriend the other day, 'We
were probably on that surveillance
tape at one point.' That's creepy to
think that we were that close to
someone that evil."
Schultz says he does not understand
how someone can leave an explosive
next to innocent bystanders.
"He must have no soul," Schultz
says. "A man, or a person, like that
must have no soul because this man
looked directly into the eyes of some
of the victims that are now either
dead or their legs were unfortu
nately blown off, and he knew what
was going to happen to them. I can't
understand the evil in that person's
mind. I'm such a happy person and
I cannot begin to understand how
someone can be OK or sleep at night
after doing that. ... That kind of
evil is just unspeakable to me and
I can't believe people like that exist
in this world."
Schultz says that the Boston
metropolitan area is getting back
to normal a week later.
"People are happy, but they're
also questioning why. I think peo
ple really want answers."
But, he admits, the experience
has left an indelible memory.
"Even a week later, I will forever
remember that day," Schultz says.,
"I can go back to any moment that
day like I'm there with perfect clar
ity. And, on top of that, experienc
ing it with someone that I hope to
make my wife someday was extra
frightening." D