Recent Attacks Hit Home For Many Bostonians

Residents in Boston and Watertown say the events over the weekend are similar to what happened in 2013

The attacks in Manhattan and New Jersey over the weekend share a number of similarities with the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

For many people in New England, the incidents are bringing up a lot of difficult memories.

Three years ago, Rochelle Jaffe was leaving the Boston Marathon when she witnessed a pressure cooker bomb go off on Boylston Street. A similar bomb injured 29 people in Manhattan on Saturday night.

"I was so close it was unbelievable," Jaffe recalled being at the marathon. "And I stayed to help some of the people who were hysterical."

Surviving the Boston Marathon bombing was an eye opener for some, but seeing it happen in two different states has many wondering, is safety reality in America.

"It's amazing how I see people watching their backs, looking to the right, looking to the left," said Jaffe. "It's terrifying."

In nearby Watertown, the bullet holes that riddle the homes on Laurel Street are a small reminder of the shootout that played out in the days following the marathon bombing.

"It's a constant reminder. It doesn't go away," Joe Ryan of Watertown said.

It is a memory that is still fresh for the residential neighborhood now watching another neighborhood witness a take down of a suspect, some 200 miles away.

"It's extremely similar, very similar and it's shocking to the city, it's shocking to the neighborhood," Ryan said.

Watertown residents say they remember how shocked they were to find out marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found in a boat just blocks away. They imagine neighbors in Linden, New Jersey, are feeling very similar, knowing the suspect wanted in connection to bombs found over the weekend was located in bar doorway on Monday.

"I guess it made me realize that this could happen anywhere, that people are becoming more clever," Michele Soltysik of Watertown said.

As investigators question the suspect in connection to the bombs in New Jersey and Manhattan, those who live on Laurel Street say the similarities are clear, but wonder what neighborhood will have to experience this next.

"We got neighborhoods all over the country, San Bernardino, New York City, it's going on all over the place and somebody has to do something," Ryan said.

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