Middlefield Family Walked Away from Finish Line Area Moments Before Explosion

A 10-year-old's decision may have spared a Middlefield family from becoming victims of yesterday's deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon.

The Schatzman family was visiting the city Monday to attend a Boston Bruins game when they decided to make their way over to the finish line of the race.

But just minutes before the explosions, Paul Schatzman said his son Connor asked to go to the Niketown store located at 200 Newbury Street, just about a half block away from Boylston Street, and in between where the two bombs exploded.

Schatzman, who owns Country Flower Farms with his wife Cheryl, said the family was in the store when the bombs went off.

"We were lucky," he said.

After some initial confusion, shoppers were ordered to leave the store and the family got within about 25 feet of the scene of first explosion, he said.

"There was a lot of confusion, at first I couldn't tell what had happened," said Megan Schatzman, who attends college in Boston and had joined her family for the visit. "People began running and screaming. It wasn't until I started seeing blood that I realized how serious it was. The whole event was incredibly surreal, it's something you would see on the news but can't imagine seeing with your own eyes," she said.

Megan said she witnessed countless bystanders running towards the blast sites to help the injured.

"I saw so many people who stayed at the scene to hold the hands of complete strangers and wait with them until the ambulances arrived," she said.

She managed to take a single photograph of a woman who was being treated for injuries.

Investigators have said that three people were killed in the attack and more than 140 others were injured, some of them critically. The investigation into the explosions is ongoing.

"I'm feeling extremely lucky right now, just counting my blessings," Megan said.