MOSCOW, January 14 (RAPSI, Ingrid Burke) – US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday that $8,355,648 would be allocated to organizations directly supporting victims, witnesses, and first responders present at the scene of the Boston Marathon bombing and effected by its aftermath.

Two bombs constructed from pressure cookers were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Three spectators were killed and hundreds injured.

The following four days were consumed by a dramatic and at times extremely violent manhunt for the suspects, who were identified by name on April 19 as Dzhokhar (then 19) and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26). The manhunt entailed the presence of thousands of law enforcement personnel from local, state, and federal agencies, and resulted in a veritable lockdown through parts of the greater Boston area.

The suspects are alleged to have shot and killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police officer on April 18, after which they are accused of having carjacked a vehicle and taken its owner hostage – though the owner eventually escaped, according to the  DOJ statement.

Tamerlan was killed during an ensuing police shootout, and Dzhokhar was arrested on the evening of April 19 after having been discovered hiding in a dry-docked boat in the Boston suburb of Watertown.

The statement explains: “Victims affected include those in the vicinity of the bombings as well as the residents of neighborhoods in which subsequent events unfolded.  An estimated 1,000 victims will require crisis and/or longer-term recovery services.”

The grant is intended to cover costs already incurred, as well as those anticipated, for organizations directly supporting victims, witnesses.