Friday night capped off a long week for local, state and federal investigators, the people of Watertown, Cambridge and Boston and the media covering the manhunt for 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and this longer than most week in Boston. A few of the correspondents still on the scene last night had put in some of the longest days in a long time. “I guess I started working thursday at 5:00 a.m. and have been working straight through,” said NBC’s Kerry Sanders, a Boston area native, not long after Tsarnaev was taken into custody last night. “It’s hard to keep clear everything that’s been going on.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper began reporting Thursday morning too, through the chaotic overnight events of Friday morning, into late Friday afternoon. FNC’s Bill Hemmer reported for about 32 hours straight Thursday into Friday. And NBC’s Lester Holt, stationed in Watertown, a city which had been under siege all day, finally jubilant as local, state and federal officials made their way out of town. “They were preparing for the worst. Now they are basking in the applause of the crowd. I may be punchy because I have gone 40-some hours without sleep,” said Holt, adding, “I have a big grin on my face. This does take me back to one of the very few good memories of the time related around 9/11. That was when we recognized the hard job our first responders do. They got their credit. That’s what we are seeing here in Watertown tonight.”
Holt, Sanders and dozens of other correspondents and anchors — network and local — who’ve worked long hours all week, are back on the air this morning as the full investigation into the bombings gets underway.