April 20th, 2013

Watertown Police Chief to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “I couldn’t have been more proud last night when I drove home to be part of such a profession.”

Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau joined CNN’s Wolf Blitzer today to talk about the role his department played in capturing the second Boston bombing suspect. Highlights from the interview are below; a full transcript of the interview is posted on http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2013.04.20.html

 “…six of my officers that I’m extremely proud of — that heroic. I mean how — I’m not, you know — My heart is out to MIT Officer and his family but how the Watertown police aren’t attending a funeral of our own based on what happened on that street over that period of time is just talent, guts and glory that my officers did.

From what I know right now, these two acted together and alone…I think we have to be ever vigilant and we’re learning as we go along. But as far as this little cell or this little group, I think we got our guys.

Yes. I mean very proud of the law enforcement community. As I said, I’m 30 years on this job. I couldn’t have been more proud last night when I drove home to be part of such a profession.


MANDATORY CREDIT: CNN’s
Wolf Blitzer


Highlight from Interview:
THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. IT MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BLITZER: You take the older brother to the hospital. He’s pronounced dead at the hospital.
 
DEVEAU: Right.
 
BLITZER: What else did you find there. What other types of weapons, explosives, hand grenades, pipe bombs, what else did you find?
 
DEVEAU: Well, there’s handguns there. There’s a long-armed rifle. There’s the three bombs that exploded is my understanding; there’s two that weren’t detonated and then the car that he bailed out of I know there was at least one other explosive device in that car that they didn’t use. There was at least six bombs they had if you will.


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BLITZER: So he was just lying there —
 
DEVEAU: Well, there was gunfire early on but there was no — we don’t know what’s in that boat yet. There may be explosives.
 
BLITZER: We heard — reporters on the scene heard a volley of gun shots going off, maybe two dozen or so. Who was firing those gun shots?
 
DEVEAU: It was back and forth.
 
BLITZER: Was he firing?
 
DEVEAU: My understanding, yes. He was firing.
 
BLITZER: From the boat?
 
DEVEAU: Right. Through the plastic they saw him poking through the plastic if you will of the boat and then gunfire erupted.
 
BLITZER: You say they had sophisticated vision equipment from a helicopter to see through the boat cover if you will to see if there was movement underneath?
 
DEVEAU: Right. We knew there was a body in that boat through the state police helicopter. It’s heat seeking. He has a higher body temperature than the boat would so we could tell. Every time he moved we could see that on the uplink.
 
BLITZER: You can tell from that heat seeking kind of — that’s pretty sophisticated. You don’t have that in the Watertown police department. That’s federal assistance that you’re getting there — pretty sophisticated level.


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