Blast probe expands out from Revere

REVERE – The man who knocked on Joseph Vieira’s door Monday night identified himself as an FBI agent and, within minutes, Vieira and his neighbors were filing out of their Revere Beach apartment building while police officers streamed into it.”They said, ?Leave’ and I left. They put people outside the building,” Vieira said.Police converged on 364 Ocean Ave. at 9 p.m. Monday, said Paul Visconti, owner of a hair salon on the apartment complex’ ground floor.”There were a ton of cops going in and out,” said Visconti.The investigatory net cast in the wake of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings covered Revere, where the Revere Fire Department wrote on its Facebook page that firefighters responded to the scene for a search for “a person of interest.””We did a run on the request of the state police,” Fire Chief Eugene Doherty said Tuesday morning.Police Lt. Amy O’Hara referred all questions about a police presence at 364 Ocean, also called the Water’s Edge complex, to the FBI, adding Revere Police were “on scene with them for support.”In a sign of the investigation’s scope, Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger confirmed that investigators from his office are joining a federal task force and have been sent to assist the federal investigation.Investigators continue to sift through thousands of tips, including 2,000 received by noon Tuesday, as they ask the public to step forward with any clues they may have, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Rick Deslauriers at a televised Tuesday morning press conference.Deslauriers declined to expand on any of those leads, including the investigation in Revere.”This will be a worldwide investigation,” he said. ” ? We will go to the ends of the earth to identify the subject or subjects who are responsible for this despicable crime and we will do everything we can to bring them to justice.””The investigation is in its infancy,” he added.Deslauriers did say in response to a reporter’s question about the search in Revere that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is an “integral” part of the investigation. The federal agency deals with immigration and border control as well as homeland security.Visconti said Water’s Edge is home to a large group of international students. City records list 144 people living in the building. Vieira said he has lived in the building 19 years. He said police escorted Water’s Edge tenants to neighboring 370 Ocean Ave. Monday night where, he said, they remained for 30 minutes while investigators focused on an apartment or apartments on the fifth floor.Another tenant, Sonya Abreau, said she saw police remove bags from the building Tuesday morning and was amazed to hear the reason why law enforcement converged on Water’s Edge.”I can’t believe this dude lives in my building,” she said.Cyrus Moulton of The Daily Item staff contributed to this report. Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected]. Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].