A man taken into custody near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, had a rice cooker in his backpack and is being charged with possession of a hoax device, disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct, officers have said.
Two backpacks in the area of the Boylston Street finish line, exactly where two pressure cooker bombs exploded last year killing three people, raised concerns, and police evacuated the neighborhood, various sources have reported.
The incident occurred shortly after ceremonies ended Tuesday to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing.
The Boston Police Department called in the bomb squad and performed what they called, a "Controlled disruption" of the bags, USA Today reported. The process involved blowing up the two backpacks found, as a precaution.
According to Independent.ie, the suspect was initially stopped by a police officer who saw the man acting suspicious. The officer said that the man dropped the backpack. Only moments later, another unattended backpack was found nearby. Both were blown up by bomb squad.
Detectives were unable to confirm what was in the second backpack or who owned it, although New York Daily reported that the rice cooker in the first bag was filled with confetti, while the second bad had photography equipment inside. Officials are sure that the first pack contained rice cooker.
The New York Daily News reported that the man arrested was barefoot, shrouded in black dress and was yelling "Boston Strong!" when he surreptitiously left at least one backpack around 7pm local time.
The man was quickly taken into custody and identified as Kayvon Edson, 25, the newspaper said.
According to a news station, WBZ-TV, quoted by various news sources, the man has been charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and possession of a hoax device.
The news station reported that the suspect wearing black clothing with black makeup confessed to cops that he put a rice cooker in one of the bags.
In a YouTube video posted by Edson in 2012, he describes himself as a "fashion designer, an entrepreneur, a performance artist, a mental patient, a blogger/bloogerist, a jailbird, a college dropout and a drag queen."
(ED: VS)
Watch the Video Below
