Chinese national ID'd as 3rd Boston attack victim

A graduate student from China attending Boston University was the third person killed in the bombing at the Boston Marathon.

The school said it was not releasing the name or any other information about the student, pending permission from the family. An official at the Chinese Consulate in New York confirmed that student was a Chinese national. He declined to provide further details.

Earlier, police on Tuesday identified a 29-year-old restaurant manager as the second victim.

Krystle Campbell had gone with her best friend to take a picture of the friend's boyfriend crossing the finish line on Monday afternoon.

An eight-year-old, Martin Richard of Boston, also died. 

Richard was at the finish line watching the race with his family, according to U.S. Representative Stephen Lynch, a friend of the family for 25 years. The boy's mother, Denise, and 6-year-old sister, Jane, were badly injured. His brother and father were also watching the race but were not hurt.

They had gone to get ice cream, then returned to the area near the finish line. Neighbour Jack Cunningham said he believed Martin's father didn't run in Monday's race because of an injury, and Richard wasn't listed as a runner on the marathon's website.

"They were looking in the crowd as the runners were coming to see if they could identify some of their friends when the bomb hit," Lynch said.

On Tuesday morning, candle burned on the stoop of the family's single-family home, and "peace" was written in chalk on the front walkway. A child's bicycle helmet lay overturned on the front lawn.

"What a gift. To know him was to love him," said longtime friend Judy Tuttle, who talked of sitting at the dining room table having tea with Denise Richard while Martin did his homework. "He had that million-dollar smile and you never knew what was going to come out of him. Denise is the most spectacular mother that you've ever met and Bill is a pillar of the community. It doesn't get any better than these people."

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Neighbour Betty Delorey, 80, said Martin loved to climb the neighbourhood trees and hop the fence outside his home.

"I can just remember his mother calling him, 'Martin!' if he was doing something wrong," she said. "Just a vivacious little kid."

Delorey had a photo showing Martin dressed as the character Woody from the Toy Story films, wearing a cowboy hat, a sheriff's badge, jeans and a big smile. His sister, Jane, was at his right dressed as Woody's friend, Jesse. Their older brother, Henry, was to their left, dressed as Harry Potter.

"I'm sick to my stomach," she said. "It's hard to say anything really."

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The children's father, Bill, is the director of a local community group, and an avid runner and bicyclist.

Denise Richard works as a librarian at the Neighborhood House Charter School, which both Martin and Jane attended.

Counsellors were being made available Tuesday to staff and students, said Bodi Luse, a school spokeswoman.

"We are devastated," she said. "The whole community is devastated."

The third victim has not been identified, but Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said he believed there were no attackers among the dead.

Doctors at one of the hospitals where the injured were taken said the injuries seemed to be almost entirely to spectators, not runners. The death toll could climb, with 17 people in critical condition Tuesday.