A man in Watertown, Mass., became a local hero Friday evening when he helped law-enforcement officials capture 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the ethnic-Chechen student who faces federal charges for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction to carry out the bombings near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15 that killed three and wounded more than 180.
Resident David Henneberry had reportedly been walking his dog in the backyard of his Franklin Street home at around 7 p.m. when he found bloodstains under the “flapping” tarp of his boat Slipaway II and called the police, ABC News and CNN report. SWAT teams and dozens of law-enforcement officers swarmed the premises, and gunfire broke out before authorities finally arrested Tsarnaev.
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Now people nationwide are raising money to buy Henneberry a new boat.
“That boat’s his baby. He takes care of it like you wouldn’t believe. And they told him it’s all shot up,” George Pizzuto, a neighbor, told ABC News. “He’s going to be heartbroken.” Another neighbor told the Guardian that bullet holes have made the boat look like “Swiss cheese.”
More than 1,000 people have joined a Facebook group called Help Get David Henneberry a New Boat. Supporters in 35 states and 4 countries have already raised more than $5,000 on Crowdtilt.com; the campaign’s admin Craig Dunlap alone donated $500.
California podcaster Richard Bliss started a similar Indiegogo campaign that has racked up $626: “I’m trying to help just one person, Dave Henneberry, raise some money to buy a new boat. To try to put his life back together,” he writes in the project description. Here’s his YouTube appeal:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/HM-PglQq09U]
Watertown police chief Edward Deveau told ABC News he got an e-mail from a Detroit man who has offered to replace the entire boat.
Orlando resident Deborah Newberry has already mailed a $25 check to Henneberry. “Just listening to his coolness and how he handled the situation, it was like, O.K., that is a man who needs to have his boat restored,” she told ABC News.
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