SEASIDE PARK -- She didn't think it could happen here, in a tiny Jersey Shore town, minutes before the scheduled start of a Marines Corps charity run.
When a pipe-bomb style device exploded a trash can just off the beach around 9:30 a.m. Sept. 17, Margie O'Hara was devastated. The Toms River resident used to call Seaside Park home, and she couldn't picture the borough as the site of such ill-intent.
She had worried that something like this might happen in a big city or at a high-profile event -- but not in Seaside Park, population 1,500.
"To know that it happened here is scary," she said Sunday as she paused at a memorial at D Street and N. Ocean Avenue, where the blast occurred.
About two dozen miniature American flags and small, gray stones reading "Jersey Proud" and "United We Stand" drew people by foot, on bikes and in cars this weekend. Some took photographs; others just stared.
Ann Cutillo was on the beach when the explosion happened. She said police officers chased her off the boardwalk.
But, she said, she wasn't afraid.
"I'm not living in fear," the Seaside Park resident said. "There have always been horrors, if anyone knows history."
Other visitors worried about the possibility of more attempted violence. Ashley Tutzauer, 17, came from Toms River to see the memorial with two friends. She said she was nervous to know that although someone had been charged in the blast, other people might also seek to cause harm.
The flags and stones gave her some comfort, she said.
"I basically grew up here," Tutzauer said. "So it means a lot to see this."
Federal officials have charged Ahmad Khan Rahami, of Elizabeth, in the Seaside Park explosion, as well as a blast that evening in New York City and the placement of five pipe bombs near the Elizabeth train station the next day.
A Manchester man who paused at the memorial Sunday said he wasn't scared by the Seaside Park explosion. He was angry.
"I picture someone coming out here with their child and got to deal with this," said Vinnie, who didn't want to give his last name. "I'm glad nobody got hurt."
Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook.