Second suspect in Boston Marathon bombing taken into custody
Posted Apr 19, 2013 10:10:20 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
One of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing is dead and Boston Police say the second has been taken into custody in the suburb of Watertown, Friday night.
Boston Police identified the surviving bomb suspect as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass. He’s the suspect seen wearing a white baseball cap on surveillance footage released by the FBI on Thursday.
An official says Tsarnaev was arrested and taken into custody with unspecified medical needs, just after 8:30 p.m.
CNN said police were aware of the exact location of Tsarnaev and had him in eye sight, in a boat parked in a home’s backyard.
The sound of gunfire was reported in Watertown just before 7 p.m. Television footage is showing emergency and military vehicles speeding through town.
The events of the past few days have resulted in Interpol issuing a global security alert in connection with the Boston marathon bombings, at the request of US law enforcement authorities.
Boston Police hosted a news conference Friday around 6 p.m., lifting a stay-indoors request for Watertown which had been put in place that morning, as authorities worked to catch Dzhokhar while keeping the public safe.
Some neighbourhoods resembled a military encampment, with officers patrolling with guns drawn and aimed, residents peering nervously from windows and people near surrounded buildings spirited away.
Preparations for the weekend
As the request was lifted, police asked the public to remain vigilant, as the suspect remains at large. Extra police officers and state patrols have been provided over the next three days, while the public is being told to stay alert to suspicious activity and unattended backpacks.
Activities scheduled for the city of Watertown this weekend will continue, but with extra patrols.
Anyone who spots the suspect is being told to stay away from him and call 911 immediately.
Suspect descriptions
According the The Associated Press, the first suspect — now dead — has been identified by law enforcement officials as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26. The man was killed in a shootout with police in Watertown
Tamerlan, who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1, was seen in surveillance footage in a black baseball cap. His brother, Dzhokhar, dubbed Suspect No. 2, was seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the security camera images.
The men’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., told The Associated Press that the brothers travelled to the U.S. together from Chechnya.
Friday’s Watertown lockdown
Residents in a 20-block area in Boston and its western suburbs, including Watertown, were advised, Friday, to keep their doors locked and not let anyone in.
“Not to open the door for anyone than a properly identified law enforcement officer and that applies here in Watertown, and also in Cambridge, Waltham, Newton, Belmont and at this point, all of Boston,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said.
One of the reasons for the concern is that the suspect who was killed was wearing an explosive, so they believe the other may be as well.
Boston public schools were closed, along with Boston University, Boston and Emerson colleges, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for safety reasons.
“We are concerned about securing that area, and making sure that this individual is taken into custody,” Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said.
Police also initiated robocalls telling people in the Watertown area to stay in their homes.
Police had shut down all public transit services on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), and service along Amtrak was suspended between Providence, R.I., and Boston.
Officers went door-to-door on about 20 streets, knocking on doors to make sure everyone was safe in their homes, while conducting a search.
However, any leads in various places in eastern Massachusetts had officers coming up empty handed.
First suspect killed by police
The clashes with police began only a few hours after the FBI released photos and videos of the two young men.
Authorities said surveillance tape recorded late Thursday showed Suspect No. 2 during a robbery of a convenience store in Cambridge, near the campus of MIT, where a university police officer, Sean Collier, 26, was shot to death while responding to a report of a disturbance.
From there, authorities say, two men carjacked a man in a Mercedes-Benz, keeping him with them in the car for half an hour before releasing him at a gas station in Cambridge. The man was not injured.
The search for the vehicle led to a chase that ended in Watertown, where authorities said the suspects threw explosive devices from the car and exchanged gunfire with police. A transit police officer was seriously injured during the chase, authorities said.
Police confirmed Friday night that the bombing suspects caught on camera during the convenience store robbery were not involved in that crime.
The bombings on Monday killed three people and wounded more than 180 others.
Victim of bombing credited for providing suspect description
According to Bloomberg News, the person who can be thanked with providing police with a description of the suspects is Jeff Bauman, the ashen-faced and wheelchair-bound man featured in a photo taken in the bombings’ immediate aftermath.
Bauman was in intensive care and heavily sedated following surgery, but managed to communicate by pen and paper to his brother, writing that he saw the suspect who looked right at him, and gave a full description.
Bauman said he witnessed the bomb-filled bag being placed at the finish line and locked eyes with the suspect.
The bomb took both of Bauman’s legs.
