Chinese victims' families arrive in Boston

As Boston residents cheered in relief after the second bombing suspect was captured, the community expressed sadness over the four lives lost in the Boston Marathon attacks.

The Boston Red Sox baseball team returned to the field on Saturday after postponing a game due to the city's lockdown during the manhunt for the second bombing suspect on Friday. Before the game, the team observed a moment of silence for the victims of the bombings and the MIT campus police officer who was killed in a confrontation with the suspects.

"What I'm really upset about, beyond the fact that they did this, are the three lives that were lost," said Luis Vasquez, a Red Sox ambassador who went to the same school as the two bombing suspects.

"The Chinese student ... her family let her come this way and they put her in our hands; they saw America as a great opportunity for her to grow and to be the best she could be, and we failed. We didn't do that job because of two lunatics," Vasquez said.

The families of the two Chinese victims in Boston explosions arrived in the city on Friday.

Cui Tiankai, China's ambassador to the United States, and representatives from Boston University went to Logan International Airport on Friday night to meet the family of the Chinese student who was killed in the bombings.

A female Chinese student of Boston University was among the people killed in the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15. More than 170 people were injured.

After arriving in Boston from Washington at noon on Friday, the ambassador first visited Zhou Danling, a female graduate student at Boston University, who is being treated at Boston Medical Center.

Cui said Zhou is in stable condition and she talked briefly.

"Her condition now is better than I expected, and she is on the way to recovery," Cui said after the visit.

"She is still unable to eat normally and said she misses Chinese food very much. We promised we would treat her to a great meal once she fully recovers."

Zhou is being taken care of by her mother who arrived from China earlier.

Cui said the Chinese government appreciated the US support for the victims' families.

Cui said Zhou expressed her gratitude to the Chinese students from Boston University and other cities who came to visit her since she was injured. The actuarial science student said she would continue her studies at Boston University after recovery.

The three Chinese students from BU were near Boylston Street - the marathon's finish line - when the bombs went off. The third student, Qian Tingting, who is also a BU student, was unharmed.

A few hours before the slain student's family arrived in Boston, police captured the second bombing suspect after a daylong manhunt.

"News that the suspect had been brought to justice can-not make up for the family's loss, but it may bring them some comfort," said Cui.

Nineteen-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a confrontation with police on Thursday night, were the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings.

Contact the writer at yuweizhang@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 04/22/2013 page12)