Boston Marathon Bombing Trial Update: Graphic Photo of Lingzi Lu Shown in Court Amid Testimony from Friend Danling Zhou

By Isaiah Narciso
Boston Marathon Victim Lingzi Lu
Lingzi Lu. Facebook

The Boston Marathon Bombing Trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev continued on Monday when prosecutors showed a gruesome picture of bombing victim Lingzi Lu and questioned other witnesses who took the stand.

According to Aaron Katersky of ABC News, 23-year-old Lu's terror-stricken face was captured in a photograph shown in court; it has not been released to the media yet. Boston University graduate student Danling Zhou, Lu's friend, described the events surrounding that photo in court testimony.

"The first bomb just happened and she's looking panic," Zhou said of the grainy image.

According to Katersky, Zhou said she saw "smoke everywhere" and "blood all over the ground," adding that the second bomb threw her into the ground.

"Shrapnel had hit Zhou in the stomach and she said she was afraid 'her insides would come out,'" Katersky wrote. "Eventually she was taken to the hospital, where she would learn Lu had succumbed to her own severe injuries."

G. Jeffrey MacDonald of USA Today reported that both women, who were from China, had the day off from school and went shopping in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. They heard the first bomb go off as they walked down Boylston Street.

"Zhou thought maybe it was construction, not a bomb," MacDonald wrote. "She looked up the street and saw 'panic and smoke at the finish line.'"

According to MacDonald, Zhou tried to calm Lu down after that event, which took place in April 2013.

"She was asking me, 'What's happening? What should we do?'" Zhou recalled.

In the aftermath of the bombing, MacDonald wrote that both women "were knocked off their feet and landed on a fence in a cloud of smoke, their legs tangled together, [and] their ears unable to hear anything." Both women were also separated in the chaos.

"A nurse gave Zhou ice, which she put in her mouth to help her breathe," MacDonald wrote. "Helpers kept arriving but then leaving to help others."

Zhou told the court that although she needed urgent care, she thought at the time that she should conserve her energy.

"I shouldn't waste my energy just yelling," Zhou said. "If I'm yelling, then I'll bleed faster, and that will cause more problems."

Zhou told the court that she only found out about her friend's death after undergoing two abdominal surgeries to clean and close her wound, according to MacDonald.

"He said, 'She passed away. You don't know that?'" Zhou said of the man who notified her of Lu's death. "They were trying to protect me, so they didn't tell me."

According to MacDonald, Dr. James Bath was walking near the marathon on his day off when he heard both explosions. The doctor noticed that a man in tattered clothes running from the scene appeared to be in shock.

"He said, 'All of my friends are dead. I need to get out of here,'" Bath said.

MacDonald reported that Bath went to treat Lu, who had a lacerated pelvis from the bombing.

"She was writhing on the ground, not responding to anyone but still breathing," MacDonald wrote. "He tried to apply a tourniquet but quickly realized there was barely any blood left to stem. Her femoral artery had been drained and she was dying from heavy blood loss."

Bath told MacDonald that he was unable to save her, adding that "she began the kind of breathing that happens when a person is in the throes of death."

"Bath asked others to stay with Lu and perform CPR," MacDonald wrote. "He moved on, hoping he could help someone else."

According to USA Today, Lu was one of the three people killed in the marathon attacks.

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