On Friday, April 19, 2013, the suspects in the Boston Marathon Bombings were confronted in the East End of Watertown, MA. One suspect was killed during a shootout with the police while the other escaped. Later that day, Dzokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding in a boat and arrested. While millions of people watched these events unfold on TV, they had a special significance for me: the gunfight and the boat are located within three blocks of my parent’s house in the neighborhood I grew up in.

Watertown is, in many ways, very similar to Ballard. Founded in 1630 (the same year as Boston), it is a few miles away from Downtown Boston, yet it is its own distinct place with a proud history. Not too far away from where the gun battle took place is the grave of Joseph Coolidge, a Minuteman who died in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775. Watertown also served as a temporary headquarters of the Revolutionary War forces during the Siege of Boston and markers commemorate the fact that Gen. George Washington himself once passed through there.

When my brother told me on Thursday night, April 18, that the suspects were having a shootout and throwing explosives at police going on blocks from where our parents still live, my blood froze. When it started, there was no indication of where the second suspect had gone, but our parents’ house was in the immediate area. International news crews were setting up their cameras in the middle of streets I had gone down thousands of times and showing scenes of hundreds of police descending upon the neighborhood to prepare their response. It was impossible to sleep; all I could do was watch the news coverage and exchange texts, phone calls and emails with family members, concerned friends, and my parents. My parents described how there were military vehicles parked on the street, including a Humvee with a machine gun turret was parked outside of their house.

I was on the phone with my father when there was a knock at the door. When my mother answered it, there were eight SWAT team members armed with machine guns on their porch who asked my parents if they could search their property. My parents were grateful they were protecting them and gave them permission. Thankfully the suspect was not there and had not left any explosives. Other people I know from my neighborhood had their whole houses searched.

The Boston Marathon Bombings were a horrific and senseless act of terrorism and I am glad that the authorities were able to quickly discover who the suspects were and were able to capture at least one of them alive. It saddens me to think of those who were killed, maimed and injured, either at the Marathon or in the days after, allegedly by these two. I am grateful for the efforts of the police in Watertown who kept my parents safe that day.

That being said, I want to respectfully ask whether the Fourth Amendment rights of my parents, friends, and former neighbors were violated by the searches. After all these years of seeing such searches happening somewhere else, it happened in the neighborhood that I grew up in, to people that I love.

Imagine turning on the news and seeing hundreds of police and paramilitary vehicles on Market St and officers in SWAT gear conducting house-to-house searches on NW 60th St. Yes, the suspect was definitely in the area, but was the justification? Why was it permissible to not have search warrants in this particular instance? I certainly hope a situation like this never happens again, but it could, which is why the question should be asked now.

We should ask these questions just as we should appreciate that Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the living suspect, will be tried in court as an American. Despite being accused of despicable crimes, Tsarnaev is an American citizen, and has a right to due process and a trial. Joseph Coolidge died on an April 19th 238 years ago so that the rights of all Americans would be protected. Let’s not let Joseph Coolidge’s sacrifice, nor those of the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombings or the lives of the officers who fell bringing them to justice be in vain.

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