Boston Marathon bomber manhunt: City on lockdown as authorities hunt for bomb suspect


BOSTON—Thousands of law enforcement officers are entering the 15th hour of a massive, door-to-door manhunt for a suspect in Monday's Boston Marathon bombings that wounded more than 170 people and left three dead.
A late-night police chase and shootout left one marathon bombing suspect—26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev—dead and the other, his younger brother, on the run, police here said. One police officer was killed and another seriously wounded during the violent spree. The city of Boston and its surrounding areas have ground to a standstill as the manhunt continues in a 20-block radius of Watertown, with local leaders warning residents to stay indoors. Police also announced there will be a "controlled explosion" in a building in Cambridge Friday afternoon.

"It is important that folks remain indoors, keep the doors locked and not open the door unless there is a uniformed law enforcement officer on the other side of it," Gov Deval Patrick said at a 12:30 p.m. press conference.
The suspect on the lam is Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass., a registered student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He and his brother's family is originally from Chechnya, a volatile and once war-torn southern Russian republic. The family fled to Kyrgyzstan and eventually immigrated to the United States as refugees about 10 years ago.
His older brother studied engineering at a local community college and was a Golden Gloves boxer. Tamerlan Tsarnaev also reportedly had a wife and young child. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was remembered by former classmates as bright and personable, posted links to pro-Chechnyan independence sites on his social media page, and listed his worldview as "Islam." Tsarnaev appeared to be posting to his Twitter account even after the attacks, writing in his last post on Wednesday, "I'm a stress free kind of guy."
The suspects' uncle told the local CBS News station that the pair had lived in the country since 2002. The uncle, when told that one of his nephews was killed, replied that he deserved it. “He deserved his. He absolutely deserved his,” Ruslan Tsarni said. “They do not deserve to live
Marathon bombing suspect Tsarnaev (FBI)on this earth.”
In an emotional press conference, Tsarni said his nephews had brought shame upon his family, and called them "losers." He said they were not "able to settle themselves" and were "angry at everyone who was able to." He said he did not believe they were motivated by the radical politics in Chechnya or their Muslim religion.
"Dzhokhar, If you're alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness from the victims [and] the injured," he said. "He put a shame on our family. He put a shame on the entire Chechnyan ethnicity. Turn yourself in."
He added that he hadn't been in touch with the family for several years, but would not say why.
"I'm ready to kneel in front of them and ask their forgiveness," Tsarni said of the victims of his nephews' crime. "I respect this country; I love this country ... this country that gives everybody chance to be treated like human being."
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, said that one or both of the brothers traveled back to the Caucasus region of Russia for a year or more before returning to America again.
Tsarnaev's father, reached by the AP in Russia by phone, said his son was a "true angel" and wonderful student. He later told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he wanted his son to surrender peacefully.
The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth announced shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Friday that they were evacuating the entire campus after learning Tsarnaev is a registered student there.
Earlier, at sunrise, Gov. Patrick ordered a shutdown of all public transit and for residents in the city of Boston and on its edges to stay indoors as a massive manhunt for the second suspect was underway. The Boston Globe reported that police are focusing on a 20-block area of Watertown, and fear the suspect may be wearing explosives. Amtrak has also shut down all trains between Boston and New York.
“This situation is grave and we are trying to protect the public safety,” said Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben, who ordered a lockdown of Watertown, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge, Newton, Allston and Brighton. Brookline was later ordered to be on lockdown as well. A no fly zone has been declared over Watertown. The city of Boston was eerily quiet during Friday's rush hour, the city's busy intersections totally abandoned.
The mayhem began at approximately 10:20 p.m. Thursday when police said the bombing suspects robbed a 7-Eleven store in Cambridge. Minutes later, police said, the men shot and killed an MIT campus officer, Sean Collier, 26, responding to the robbery call. The terror suspects then carjacked a Mercedes-Benz SUV with the driver inside and fled, eventually letting the driver go.
(Shortly before 2 a.m. Friday, MIT issued a statement on its website saying that the suspect "in this evening's shooting is no longer on campus. It is now safe to resume normal activities. Please remain vigilant in the coming hours." MIT, Harvard, Boston University and other local colleges have cancelled classes.)
The suspects were then spotted in Watertown, where Federal agents swarmed in. At approximately 3:30 a.m., Massachusetts State Police issued a plea on Twitter for residents of Watertown to lock their doors and not open them for anyone as dozens of police officers, many of them off-duty, searched backyards and exteriors of houses there, and a police perimeter of several blocks was established.
Worried residents were also told to turn off their cell phones out of fear that they could trigger improvised explosive devices.
K9 units and SWAT teams searched homes on Spruce Street as officers with a police robot searched an SUV that the suspects had abandoned. Multiple devices were left in the road and two handguns were recovered, according to police scanners.
Slain MIT police officer Sean Collier. (Middlesex DA)
The suspects exchanged dozens of rounds of gunfire with patrol officers. According to the Washington Post, they also lobbed IEDs at officers.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot by police and brought to Beth Israel Medical Center. He arrived at the hospital under cardiac arrest with multiple gunshot wounds and blast-like injuries to his chest. The second suspect fled on foot, leading to the tense manhunt that is still underway at this hour.
A transit officer, Richard H. Donohue, was seriously wounded during the exchange of gunfire, officials said.
"We believe this to be a terrorist," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis of Tsarnaev. "We believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people. We need to get him into custody."
In a radio alert sent issued to fellow officers, the suspect was described as a "white male with dark complexion ... with thick curly hair wearing a charcoal gray hooded sweatshirt ... possibly with an assault rifle and explosives."
Police in Watertown, Newton, Brighton and Cambridge were put on high alert. "Units use caution," an officer said. "He might have an explosive object on his person."
"Suspect 2" seen in 7-Eleven surveillance footage; police in Watertown (BPD/Getty)
President Barack Obama, who attended an interfaith service for the bombing victims in Boston on Thursday, was briefed on the overnight developments, the White House said early Friday. He received an updated briefing later in the day.
Police were able to track down images of the suspects after a victim of the attacks, Jeff Bauman, came to them with a description,Bloomberg reported Thursday. Bauman's legs were torn apart by the bomb.