Community Corner

'It's Like Being in a War Zone': Salem Native Under Lockdown in MA

Rob Lemieux's Watertown, MA, neighborhood is under siege as police hunt for the suspected Boston Marathon bomber at large. He shares what's happening in Watertown with Patch.

Rob Lemieux knows the exact moment the shots started firing in his Watertown, MA, neighborhood.

“I heard the explosions and my eyes snapped open. I looked at the clock—12:55 a.m.,” Lemieux, who is originally from Salem, says. “Then the gunshots started.”

Lemieux, along with hundreds of thousands in Watertown and surrounding towns, has had the surreal experience of being on lockdown all day as police hunt for suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

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But Lemieux is closer than most. This morning’s barrage of gunfire took place just a stone’s throw from the Quimby Street home he shares with wife Rachel and their dogs.

“The forensics teams were measuring bullet holes in the home behind us,” Lemieux says, “and there was an unexploded device nearby. The main crime scene is probably roughly 100 yards from here.”

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The proximity prompted SWAT officers to go through the Lemieuxes’ house, as they are for every nearby home.

“Seven guys came in, going upstairs, downstairs and into the attic,” Lemieux says. “And the funny thing is, they were apologizing for the inconvenience. I said, ‘Oh no, don’t you apologize to us. Thank you.’”

Oddly, the SWAT sweep gave the couple their first break from total lockdown as they went down to the street and chatted for a few minutes with Massachusetts state troopers and Boston police officers.

“They were talking a little bit about what’s happening and I told them what I’ve seen because most of them weren’t here from the beginning,” he says. “One SWAT officer I talked with is convinced this guy either doesn’t want to go alive or will try to take as many people with him when he does.”

The violence already inflicted on Boston—three dead and scores injured at the marathon, an MIT police officer dead and a transit officer wounded this morning—suggest to Lemieux that Tsarnaev won’t stop at anything.

“When we got closer to the actual crime scene today, we saw the bullet casings on the ground,” he says. “The numbered signs went up to 96, 97.”

Lemieux has run on adrenaline since he first woke up Friday morning and hasn’t stopped since. He’s listening to his scanner in between regular Facebook updates to let people know what’s going on. Reporters have been cordoned off away from the crime scene, he says, and many TV stations aren’t reporting what’s happening right now on the ground.

Since the gunfire this morning and the SWAT sweep, a strange type of calm has fallen over his section of Watertown.

“It feels like a false calm though because SWAT officers are still walking around with fully loaded, automatic rifles, wearing flak jackets,” Lemieux says. “At one point, SWAT went flying up the street, shouting, ‘Go, go, go!’ and officers were ducking behind our cars for cover, Hummers were speeding around. It’s like being in a war zone.”

The Lemieuxes have tried to keep things light today, knowing they’re doing what they can by contacting family and posting updates on Facebook.

“Honestly, though, it is scary. There’s definitely been a few moments when I’ve been legitimately frightened,” Lemieux says. “I called my mom to tell her I love her. We feel safe, but you just never know.”


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