Mr Obama said: “Our hearts are broken for eight-year-old Martin with his big smile and bright eyes.His last hours were as perfect as an eight-year-old boy could hope for, with his family eating ice cream at a sporting event.“We’re left with two enduring images. Forever smiling for his beloved Bruins hockey team and forever expressing a wish he made on a blue poster, ‘No more hurting people. Peace’.”Mr Obama also spoke of Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu, 23, who died in the attack. Then, from the depths of despair, Mr Obama raised up his audience by focusing its attention on the way forward.He likened the city to Bill Iffrig, the man in an orange vest forced to the ground by the blast as he ran the final few yards of the marathon.The President said: “We may be knocked off our feet but we will pick ourselves up and we will keep going. We’ll finish the race.”
Victim: Krystle Campbell
And he warned the bombers in an increasingly defiant tone: “To millions of us this is personal. Yes, we will find you. "And yes you will face justice. We will find you. We will hold you accountable.”Tonight more than 50 people remained in Boston hospitals where 12 were in a critical condition.Mr Obama had words for them: “From their beds some are watching us today and if you are, know this, as you begin this long journey of recovery, your city is with you.“Your commonwealth is with you, your country is with, we will all be with you as you learn to stand, and walk and yes run again. Of that I have no doubt, you will run again.“You will run again because that is what the people of Boston are made of. Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act.“If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorise us, to shake us from those values of who we are, it should be clear by now they picked the wrong city.
"Not here in Boston…not here in Boston.”
Poignant: Martin Richard
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Seven of the city’s most prominent church leaders all delivered a message at the service. Mr Obama’s speech came four months after he offered solace to the families of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers killed in the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. This week he was himself the intended victim of terror.Prosecutors today filed criminal charges of threatening to harm the President against 45-year-old Paul Kevin Curtis from Mississippi.He was arrested a day earlier as the FBI probed the sending of letters to Mr Obama which were believed to have contained the deadly poison ricin.Today the President signed an emergency declaration for Massachusetts and ordered federal aid for the local response to the Boston bombings.Investigators have an image of a man they want to question after footage showed him placing a bag down at the scene of the blast.
Victim: Krystle CampbellAnd he warned the bombers in an increasingly defiant tone: “To millions of us this is personal. Yes, we will find you. "And yes you will face justice. We will find you. We will hold you accountable.”Tonight more than 50 people remained in Boston hospitals where 12 were in a critical condition.Mr Obama had words for them: “From their beds some are watching us today and if you are, know this, as you begin this long journey of recovery, your city is with you.“Your commonwealth is with you, your country is with, we will all be with you as you learn to stand, and walk and yes run again. Of that I have no doubt, you will run again.“You will run again because that is what the people of Boston are made of. Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act.“If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorise us, to shake us from those values of who we are, it should be clear by now they picked the wrong city.
"Not here in Boston…not here in Boston.”
Poignant: Martin Richard Seven of the city’s most prominent church leaders all delivered a message at the service. Mr Obama’s speech came four months after he offered solace to the families of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers killed in the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. This week he was himself the intended victim of terror.Prosecutors today filed criminal charges of threatening to harm the President against 45-year-old Paul Kevin Curtis from Mississippi.He was arrested a day earlier as the FBI probed the sending of letters to Mr Obama which were believed to have contained the deadly poison ricin.Today the President signed an emergency declaration for Massachusetts and ordered federal aid for the local response to the Boston bombings.Investigators have an image of a man they want to question after footage showed him placing a bag down at the scene of the blast.