{
  "id": "2013-04-19-boston-university-marathon-manhunt",
  "slug": "boston-university-marathon-manhunt-2013-04-19",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Boston University",
    "shortName": "BU",
    "state": "MA",
    "type": "private-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "BU Alert",
    "enrollment": 33000
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2013-04-19",
    "type": "shelter-in-place",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "headline": "Campuses closed under a regional shelter-in-place during the marathon bombing manhunt",
    "headlinePublic": "Campuses closed under a regional shelter-in-place during the marathon bombing manhunt",
    "summary": "On the morning of [April 19, 2013](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/19/177923309/a-timeline-of-the-boston-manhunt), Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick imposed a shelter-in-place advisory across Boston and surrounding cities while law enforcement pursued [Boston Marathon bomber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon_bombing) Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. [Boston University](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2013/bupd-role-in-the-marathon-bomber-manhunt/) closed both its Charles River campus on Commonwealth Avenue and its [Medical Campus in the South End](https://nation.time.com/2013/04/19/the-marathon-bombing-gunfights-blasts-and-a-manhunt-shut-down-boston/). BU Alert pushed continuous updates while [BUPD officers joined the Watertown manhunt](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2013/bupd-role-in-the-marathon-bomber-manhunt/) and a Kenmore Square emergency at midday (when a BU Alert reporting a gun and a suspect near campus briefly shut down a six-block section of Kenmore) produced a separate alert cycle within the main shelter-in-place day. Classes resumed Monday, April 22.",
    "outcome": "No injuries at BU. The midday Kenmore Square emergency turned out to be a false alarm: a person seen carrying what was thought to be a firearm in the vicinity of the BU Castle was not connected to the Marathon bombing, and the situation cleared within an hour. BUPD officers returned to campus from the Watertown response after Tsarnaev's capture. Classes resumed Monday, April 22, 2013. BU's experience is documented in BU Today's contemporaneous and 5-year-anniversary retrospectives, and BU canceled its admitted-students weekend events through the shelter-in-place.",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 0
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2013-04-19T04:09:00-04:00",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "Stay inside, BU. Classes canceled. University closed.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.bu.edu/webteam/projects/butoday_projects/timeline/",
      "sourceDescription": "BU Today Boston Marathon Bombings timeline, quoting the BU Alert sent at approximately 4:09 AM EDT on April 19, 2013",
      "annotations": [
        "Sent at approximately 4:09 AM EDT on April 19, 2013. BU's initial alert preceded the Massachusetts Governor's formal citywide shelter-in-place advisory at approximately 6:00 AM EDT, reflecting BU's independent decision to close both campuses based on overnight events at MIT and Watertown",
        "BU's main campus stretches along Commonwealth Avenue from Kenmore Square westward, directly between the Marathon bombing site at Boylston Street and the Watertown shootout site at Dexter Avenue",
        "The concise three-phrase format ('Stay inside, BU. Classes canceled. University closed.') compressed the entire operational posture into an SMS-constrained burst; no location, no threat description, no instruction beyond staying inside"
      ],
      "characterCount": 53
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2013-04-19T11:30:00-04:00",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from BU Alert communications described in [BU Today's 'A Gun, a Suspect, a Manhunt Shut Down Kenmore Square' retrospective](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2018/a-gun-a-suspect-a-manhunt-shuts-down-kenmore-square/)",
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2013-04-19T12:30:00-04:00",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from BU Today retrospective coverage of the April 19, 2013 Kenmore Square false alarm",
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 4,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestamp": "2013-04-19T19:00:00-04:00",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from BU Alert communications and BU Today coverage of the April 19, 2013 shelter-in-place lift and admitted-students-weekend cancellation",
      "annotations": []
    }
  ],
  "context": "[Boston University](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2013/bupd-role-in-the-marathon-bomber-manhunt/) sits in a uniquely complex geography for the April 19, 2013 [Boston Marathon manhunt](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/19/177923309/a-timeline-of-the-boston-manhunt): the Charles River main campus runs west along Commonwealth Avenue from Kenmore Square (three blocks from the Boylston Street bombing site) and the Medical Campus in the South End is two miles southeast. When [Governor Deval Patrick imposed a citywide shelter-in-place advisory at approximately 6:00 AM EDT](https://nation.time.com/2013/04/19/the-marathon-bombing-gunfights-blasts-and-a-manhunt-shut-down-boston/), BU Alert pushed near-simultaneous SMS and email messages closing both campuses. The most unusual feature of BU's shelter-in-place day was a [midday Kenmore Square emergency](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2018/a-gun-a-suspect-a-manhunt-shuts-down-kenmore-square/) when a report of an armed individual near the [BU Castle on Bay State Road](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon_bombing) prompted a separate BU Alert cycle layered on top of the active citywide advisory. The Kenmore report turned out to be unconnected to the Marathon bombing and cleared within roughly an hour. [BUPD officers joined the Watertown manhunt](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2013/bupd-role-in-the-marathon-bomber-manhunt/), a deployment of a private-university police force to a multi-jurisdictional terrorism response. The shelter-in-place advisory was lifted at approximately 6:00 PM EDT; Tsarnaev was captured at 8:45 PM EDT. BU canceled its admitted-students-weekend events (April 19-21) and remained closed Saturday before resuming classes Monday, April 22. The case is significant for the archive because it documents (1) the operational challenge of coordinating a two-campus, two-mile-separated urban-R1 response to a regional terrorism event, (2) the precedent of layering a local 'avoid the area' alert on top of an active citywide shelter-in-place advisory, and (3) the impact of the lockdown on admitted-students-weekend events across multiple Boston universities.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "Boston University used BU Alert to close both its Charles River and Medical Campus simultaneously, an early example of a multi-campus private-R1 emergency communication during a regional terrorism event",
    "A midday Kenmore Square emergency (a report of an armed individual near the BU Castle) produced a separate BU Alert cycle layered on top of the active citywide shelter-in-place advisory, and was ultimately determined unconnected to the Marathon investigation",
    "BUPD officers joined the Watertown manhunt, a deployment of a private-university police force to a multi-jurisdictional terrorism response",
    "BU's Admitted Students Weekend (April 19-21, 2013) was canceled and rescheduled; Harvard, Northeastern, and Tufts similarly canceled their concurrent admitted-student events",
    "The shelter-in-place was lifted at approximately 6:00 PM EDT on April 19, 2013, ahead of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's capture in a Watertown backyard at 8:45 PM EDT; BU remained closed Saturday before resuming classes Monday, April 22"
  ],
  "responseTimeMinutes": null,
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "BUPD's Role in the Marathon Bomber Manhunt - BU Today",
      "url": "https://www.bu.edu/articles/2013/bupd-role-in-the-marathon-bomber-manhunt/",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "A Gun, a Suspect, a Manhunt Shut Down Kenmore Square - BU Today",
      "url": "https://www.bu.edu/articles/2018/a-gun-a-suspect-a-manhunt-shuts-down-kenmore-square/",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Boston Marathon Bombings - BU Today timeline",
      "url": "https://www.bu.edu/webteam/projects/butoday_projects/timeline/",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "A Timeline Of The Boston Manhunt - NPR",
      "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/19/177923309/a-timeline-of-the-boston-manhunt",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "The Marathon Bombing: Gunfights, Blasts and a Manhunt Shut Down Boston - TIME",
      "url": "https://nation.time.com/2013/04/19/the-marathon-bombing-gunfights-blasts-and-a-manhunt-shut-down-boston/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "With Admitted Student Weekends Disrupted, Universities Went Online - Boston Magazine",
      "url": "https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2013/04/22/with-admitted-student-weekends-disrupted-universities-went-online/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Boston Marathon bombing - Wikipedia",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon_bombing",
      "type": "other"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "boston-marathon-bombing",
    "shelter-in-place",
    "lockdown",
    "terrorism",
    "boston-university",
    "private-r1",
    "boston",
    "manhunt",
    "kenmore-square",
    "campus-police",
    "two-campus",
    "admitted-students-weekend",
    "2013"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-14",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}