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NPR, One Blast Injured Dozens In Chelsea. I Saw A 2nd Device Shortly Afterward

One Blast Injured Dozens In Chelsea. I Saw A 2nd Device Shortly Afterward

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now, after that explosion yesterday in New York, a second explosive device was discovered, as we just told you. It was removed before it was detonated. And one of the people who saw it and alerted authorities about it was Petra Mayer, who is an editor at NPR Books. And I talked to her earlier, and I asked her how she came upon it.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE: So I was up here visiting a friend. We had been at an event in Brooklyn. And we heard about the original explosion on the radio. We were taking a cab home, and we just couldn't get anywhere near because all the streets were blocked off. So we got the cab to let us off at - a couple blocks away at 29th and 6th, and we were just walking down the street. And we were only a few doors from my friend's house. And I happened to look down and say, hey, there's a pressure cooker on the street. And we took a closer look at it. And it was bound up in duct tape, and it had wires coming out of it and what - I couldn't quite tell what the wires were attached to. It looked like a sort of rectangular, black plastic thing. And we took a slightly closer look at it, and then we walked right away and right to her house and she called 911.

MARTIN: To your knowledge, are you the first person to have - or you and your friend, are you the first people to have alerted the authorities to the presence of this device?

MAYER: It's a little bit unclear. We've heard different things from different police officers that we talked to. Some said we were the only people to call it in, some said there was somebody else, so I wouldn't be too comfortable saying that we were the first or only people. But we certainly saw it and we called it in.

MARTIN: What happened after that, after you called 911?

MAYER: We went up to her apartment, which is at the back of the building, because we wanted to get as far away as we possibly could. And so that was at about 10:30. And then the police - I'm not sure exactly when they arrived because I was pretty much hiding in the back of the building. But they brought a whole bomb disposal crew, blocked off the street, and they finally carted it away at about 2 in the morning.

MARTIN: Were there a lot of people in the area at the time walking around?

MAYER: No. No. We had passed, like, further up the block one group of people that were coming out of a party, but there was almost no one around. It was just us.

MARTIN: Do you mind if I ask you - a little uncomfortable to ask you as a colleague because, you know, we generally aren't in the business of asking each other how we feel about things. But do you mind if I ask what's going through your mind right now or what's been going through your mind in the last couple hours? MAYER: That's fine. I - to be perfectly honest, I'm still processing it. I'm really just grateful that the police responded and that they were able to get there before - subsequently, I found out that the thing that I couldn't identify that was attached to the top of it was a cell phone, which I presume must have been a remote detonator. And I'm just very grateful that the police were able to respond and dispose of it before it did go off. That's really all that matters to me right now. MARTIN: That's NPR's Petra Mayer. She's an editor at NPR Books. And she is at least one of the people who reported the existence of a second device found in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood last night. Petra, thanks so much for speaking with us.


One Blast Injured Dozens In Chelsea. I Saw A 2nd Device Shortly Afterward

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now, after that explosion yesterday in New York, a second explosive device was discovered, as we just told you. It was removed before it was detonated. 在引爆前即已移除 And one of the people who saw it and alerted authorities about it was Petra Mayer, who is an editor at NPR Books. And I talked to her earlier, and I asked her how she came upon it.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE: So I was up here visiting a friend. We had been at an event in Brooklyn. And we heard about the original explosion on the radio. We were taking a cab home, and we just couldn’t get anywhere near because all the streets were blocked off. So we got the cab to let us off at - a couple blocks away at 29th and 6th, and we were just walking down the street. And we were only a few doors from my friend’s house. And I happened to look down and say, hey, there’s a pressure cooker on the street. And we took a closer look at it. And it was bound up in duct tape, and it had wires coming out of it and what - I couldn’t quite tell what the wires were attached to. It looked like a sort of rectangular, black plastic thing. And we took a slightly closer look at it, and then we walked right away and right to her house and she called 911.

MARTIN: To your knowledge, are you the first person to have - or you and your friend, are you the first people to have alerted the authorities to the presence of this device?

MAYER: It’s a little bit unclear. We’ve heard different things from different police officers that we talked to. Some said we were the only people to call it in, some said there was somebody else, so I wouldn’t be too comfortable saying that we were the first or only people. But we certainly saw it and we called it in.

MARTIN: What happened after that, after you called 911?

MAYER: We went up to her apartment, which is at the back of the building, because we wanted to get as far away as we possibly could. And so that was at about 10:30. And then the police - I’m not sure exactly when they arrived because I was pretty much hiding in the back of the building. But they brought a whole bomb disposal crew, blocked off the street, and they finally carted it away at about 2 in the morning.

MARTIN: Were there a lot of people in the area at the time walking around?

MAYER: No. No. We had passed, like, further up the block one group of people that were coming out of a party, but there was almost no one around. It was just us.

MARTIN: Do you mind if I ask you - a little uncomfortable to ask you as a colleague because, you know, we generally aren’t in the business of asking each other how we feel about things. But do you mind if I ask what’s going through your mind right now or what’s been going through your mind in the last couple hours? MAYER: That’s fine. I - to be perfectly honest, I’m still processing it. I’m really just grateful that the police responded and that they were able to get there before - subsequently, I found out that the thing that I couldn’t identify that was attached to the top of it was a cell phone, which I presume must have been a remote detonator. And I’m just very grateful that the police were able to respond and dispose of it before it did go off. That’s really all that matters to me right now. MARTIN: That’s NPR’s Petra Mayer. She’s an editor at NPR Books. And she is at least one of the people who reported the existence of a second device found in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood last night. Petra, thanks so much for speaking with us.