Boston Marathon Bombers: One Suspect Captured; One Dead [UPDATED]
The second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing has been captured. Dzokhar Tsarnaev was taken into police custody Friday night -- five days after the bombing that left three dead and left more than 100 injured, police said. The 19-year-old was apprehended after a manhunt that began Thursday night with the fatal shooting of an MIT officer and extended into the evening hours on Friday.
Police said Dzokhar's brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had also been identified as a suspect in the bombing, was killed when gunfire was exchanged between the brothers and police in Watertown Thursday night.
Dzokhar had been evading officers, prompting a massive lockdown, since.
Cheering could be heard as Dzokhar was taken into custody on Friday and the Boston Police Department tweeted, "CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody" at 7:58 p.m. EST.
Timeline of Live Updates:
9:33 p.m. (EST): At a press conference held in Watertown Massachusetts State Police spokesman Col. Timothy Alben said "We're so grateful to bring justice and closure to this case. We're exhausted, folks, but we have a victory here tonight."
In the same news conference, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said, "Its a night where I think we're all going to rest easy."
8:46 p.m. (EST): Boston police tweet that the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing has been taken into custody.
8:02 p.m. (EST): Police in nearby New Bedford, Mass., say three people have been taken into custody in connection with the case. Police searched Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s UMass Dartmouth dorm room and authorities swarmed to the Rockdale West apartment complex in New Bedford’s West End. WBSM reports three people were arrested on scene, and are allegedly friends of the second suspect.
7:50 p.m. (EST): Police surround a home in Watertown. Multiple reports say law enforcement believes the suspect is hiding on a boat on the property.
6:20 p.m. (EST): The stay-indoors request to the citizens of Boston and the neighboring areas has been lifted. The T line train service is up and running again.
Unfortunately, the suspect, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, has still not been found, although Massachusetts State Police Superintendent Col. Timothy Alben said at a press conference, "I still believe he is in Massachusetts."
A bit more from the press conference:
One bit of interesting information Alben revealed was regarding how Tsarnaev managed to initially elude capture Wednesday night after he and his brother, who was killed, led police on a high-speed chase from Boston to Watertown, then into a 200-round firefight. Apparently, he simply exited the car and escaped on foot.
The manhunt continues.
5:30 p.m. (EST): The search of the 20-block area in Watertown where police thought they had trapped Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has not led to his discovery. The town, along with Boston, is effectively a ghost town at this point.
Some recent bits of news:
- The New York Times' Moscow bureau interviewed the suspects' father, Anzor Tsarnaev. Apparently Tamerlan had had a domestic violence situation with his wife not long ago, and that's why he could not become an American citizen. "He hit her lightly," Anzor said. "He was locked up for half an hour, there was jealousy there. He paid $250, that was it, he went home. Because of that—in America you can’t touch a woman, they wouldn’t give him citizen."
- The suspects' sister, Ailina Tsarnaev, lives in West New York, New Jersey. The FBI searched her home today and removed a computer.
3:45 p.m. (EST): Transit officer Richard Donohue, who was severely injured during last night's gun battle with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had successful surgery and has been stabilized. He is still in critical condition, though.
The family of Sean Collier, the MIT campus officer who was killed last night, issued this statement about their son:
We are heartbroken by the loss of our wonderful and caring son and brother, Sean Collier. Our only solace is that Sean died bravely, doing what he committed his life to: serving and protecting others. We are thankful for the outpouring of support and condolences offered by so many people. We are grieving his loss.
3:30 p.m. (EST): Tonight's Red Sox-Royals baseball game and Bruins-Penguins hockey game have been postponed.
2:20 p.m. (EST): During a search of one of the suspects' homes, police discovered explosive material. Shortly, the bomb squad will conduct a controlled detonation of that material.
Meanwhile, police continue to search the 20-block area in Watertown where they still think the fugitive suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is hiding. For a tense first-person account of what it's like to be living in a house inside that zone, go here. Excerpt:
This morning, many of [the officers] were armed to the teeth, ready for war. A SWAT team assembled along Fairfield and then moved down it, searching. They then repeated that procedure with my part of Dexter Ave.—shining flashlights into yards, moving in between homes. I never saw them go into any houses—with one exception...
12:10 p.m. (EST): At the moment, the standoff in Watertown continues. Law enforcement will be holding a press briefing shortly, at which point we'll know more about exactly what is happening there, where a large area of the town has been blocked off. Heavily armored personnel, including FBI and military, have converged on a small section of the town and are keeping civilians and media at a distance.
The Washington Post has put together an infographic describing the events and locations of the past few days here.
Here are the two suspects:
11:30 a.m. (EST): The suspects' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, just spoke with reporters outside his home in Montgomery Village, Maryland, and did not have kind words for his nephews. "He put a shame on this family," he said. "He put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity."
When asked what advice he would offer to the remaining at-large suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tsarni said, "I say, Dzhokhar, if you're alive, turn yourself in. And ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the injured, from those who left. Ask forgiveness from these people."
Tsarni (below) explained that he hadn't seen them in years, that they had immigrated to America from Dagestan in 2003 and received asylum.
10:50 a.m. (EST): Police have now surrounded an intersection in Watertown. They have drawn their guns. It is not clear if they are confronting the suspect, though. Media is being kept at a safe distance for now.
The car mentioned in the tweet below has been found unoccupied and is being processed for evidence.
10:25 a.m. (EST): The Boston Police Department says that the fugitive may be in a gray 1999 Honda CRV with the Massachusetts license plate 316-ES9.
Here's a rundown of what we know right now about the hunt for the two suspects accused of setting off the explosions at Monday's Boston Marathon:
- One suspect is dead; the other is currently at large, believed to still be in the Boston area, probably in the suburb of Watertown, Massachusetts.
- Watertown is completely shut down, as is Boston in general.
- No trains (either the T or Amtrak), buses or taxis are in service. Streets are closed off.
- Law enforcement is going door-to-door in search of the remaining suspect, whom they believe is armed and dangerous.
- Police have asked all residents to stay in their homes, lock the doors, and only open them for police who present ID.
The two suspects are brothers. One, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot and wounded during a battle with police in Cambridge late Thursday night. He was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. (EST).
Currently more than 9,000 law enforcement officers of various levels—local police, FBI, counterterrorism agents, Homeland Security—are searching house by house for the remaining suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Cambridge.
On Wednesday night, the brothers were on the campus of MIT, where they shot and killed a campus security officer named Sean Collier, 26, of Somerville. Then, at about 10:30 p.m., they carjacked a Mercedes SUV, taking the driver hostage. They later released him, unharmed, and drove to Watertown, where police engaged them.
It was during this fight that the older brother was shot and mortally wounded. The younger brother then escaped somewhere in Watertown, which is where the manhunt is currently focused.
The suspects' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, spoke with reporters. He said the boys came to America about 10 years ago. The A.P. had reported earlier that they brothers were from Chechnya.
They both went to high school in Cambridge, where by all accounts so far, they were normal teenagers. Tamerlan, the older brother, was a fairly successful boxer. Dzhokhar was a wrestler, and he had even earned a scholarship from the city of Cambridge.
Dzhokhar attended the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, which has closed its campus.
[CBS, Boston Globe, TPM, CBS-Boston, WBSM, NJ 101.5]