One Bombing suspect is dead after a shootout with police, the other is still on the run. A massive manhunt is under way for him.
UPDATE II
Captured!
From FoxNews
“The second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is in custody, after police found him hiding in a boat covered by a tarp behind a house in the Watertown section of the city, Boston police confirmed.
Police moved in on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Friday evening after tip led them to the home on Franklin Street, where he apparently had been hiding in the back yard. Neighbors said they heard more than 30 shots one likened to “a roll of firecrackers shooting off.” Police swarmed the scene, and several explosions, possibly police concussion grenades, were heard after a robot moved in on the boat.”
Great job by the police, and especially the alert lady that called it in.
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From NBCNews
“The Boston Marathon bombing suspects — armed with explosives and guns — battled law enforcement officers in a Boston suburb early Friday morning, unleashing chaos until cops took one of the men into custody and the other fled, law enforcement sources said.
Officials later said the suspect taken into custody died and authorities identified the man on the run as the “white-hat” suspect, referencing photographs released by the FBI Thursday. Authorities warned he should be considered armed and dangerous.”
“Law enforcement sources said the suspects have international links and have been in the country legally for about a year.
The suspects approached the MIT officer and shot him in head, the sources said. The two then stole the MIT officer’s cruiser, robbed a nearby 7-11 and carjacked a Mercedes SUV, briefly kidnapping the driver, the sources said. At various points, the suspects threw explosives out the window of the moving car.”
More here from FoxNews
“Authorities urged residents in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge and the Allston-Brighton neighborhoods of Boston to stay indoors. All mass transit was shut down.
“We believe this to be a terrorist,” Davis said in a press conference. “We believe this to be a man who’s come here to kill people. We need to get him in custody.””
“A federal law enforcement official told Fox News they are looking into whether the bombing suspects may have been from overseas and had overseas military training.”
Watertown, Mass. and the surrounding area is under lockdown this morning. From NBCNews
“Public transportation in Boston was shut down Friday morning and some neighborhoods and towns were in total lockdown as police searched for the second of two men believed to have been involved in the marathon bombings earlier this week.”
“All services on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority were immediately suspended authorities announced and the residents of the city’s western suburbs, including the neighborhoods of Watertown, Allston-Brighton, Cambridge, Belmont and Newton, were asked to remain in their homes.
Police searched the Watertown neighborhood door to door on foot and in patrol cars early Friday morning. Residents were asked to call 911 if anyone other than police came to doors in the neighborhood.
People waiting for buses or other transit services should head home and stay there, police said. No vehicular traffic was being allowed in or out of Watertown, where police engaged in a shootout overnight with men armed with explosives.”
The suspects have been identified. They are from Chechnya. From NBCNews
“The suspects are brothers with the last name Tsarnaev, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The suspect on the loose is 19 and has a Massachusetts driver’s license, they said. Law enforcement officials told NBC News that both men had international ties, had been in the United States about a year and had military experience.”
UPDATE
Here’s an excellent rundown on the bomber still at large, including Tweets, from TheAtlanticWire with a CONTENT WARNING!!! for the Tweets.
“On Friday, after a chaotic evening saw his partner in crime (and apparently his older brother) killed and as a city locked down to find him, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev emerged as the name of the man in the ongoing manhunt in Boston Friday. According to information culled from multiple reports, Tsarnaev is a 19-year-old reportedly from Kyrgyzstan who has been living, for the past year, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Here’s are the basics of what we know about “Suspect No. 2” — a.k.a. the suspect in the white hat, the one authorities apparently saw drop a bomb-laden backpack in security footages, and the one currently being pursued by police: Tsarnaev was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which is closed for the day; he has been in this country for at least one year; his father is currently in Russia and is claiming that the two boys aren’t/weren’t religious. His uncle is also speaking out about Dzhokhar and Tamerlan, his now dead brother and apparently fellow suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.
By culling social media, official news reports, and beyond, we’re in the process of filling in the blanks about both suspects — beginning with the man in the standoff with scores of law enforcement officers right now:”
It’s a pretty extensive background piece. I would also point out that despite the father’s insistence to the contrary, the older brother’s Facebook told a different story. Those he “followed” certainly were. And the younger’s Tweets speak for themselves. From WeaselZippers with a CONTENT WARNING!!! for the Tweets.
And he’s a 9-11 truther.
More here on a video allegedly posted by the suspect. It reads like a prayer of some sort, from TheInvestigativeProject
And if this is true, heads should roll. From JudicialWatch
“One of the Chechen terrorists who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings could have been deported years ago after a criminal conviction and the other was granted American citizenship on the 11th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old killed in a wild shootout with police, was a legal U.S. resident who nevertheless could have been removed from the country after a 2009 domestic violence conviction, according to a Judicial Watch source. That means the Obama administration missed an opportunity to deport Tsarnaev but evidently didn’t feel he represented a big enough threat.”
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Wandering Views 
Hmmm. This is different:
BREAKING: AP sources: Boston bomb suspects from Russia region near Chechnya, lived in US at least 1 year.
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msnbc: The suspects are brothers, aged 19 and 20. Djhokar Tsarnaez of Cambridge, MA., is the one still at large.
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Fox is reporting they are brothers.
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They appear to have been living in Cambridge near MIT and Harvard.
I wonder if they have student visas?
The fact that they are Chechnyan, and appear to have had military training raises another obvious question too.
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The bomb squad has just done a controlled explosion on a package or backpack in Cambridge. No word yet on why.
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And this is helpful (maybe) for context:
http://www.cfr.org/terrorism/chechen-terrorism-russia-chechnya-separatist/p9181
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Donna,
Yeah, that’s the obvious question. Al-Qaeda has known ties in the Chechnya area.
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They’re bringing police and sheriffs to the area by the busload. They appear to be surrounding a building in Cambridge. No word yet on if the suspect is inside.
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Well, if the reports are true, it explains the nature of the attacks and subsequent chase. Chechnyans have perpetrated the worst terrorist attacks in Russia. There has been war for so long in that area, and so many atrocities commited on both sides (the Russians were seeking to ethnically cleanse the area) that many of the young people are feral in their attitude to other humans. But why they turned their attention to the US is another question.
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Roscuro,
The Al-Qaeda angle probably answers the why question. It also would explain why they used an Al-Qaeda prefered bomb technique.
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The one boy is so young looking. 😦 It’s all really horrible. I’ve been speaking with a family whose 65-year-old father/brother-in-law/grandfather was very severely injured in the blast. He’s facing surgery #5 this weekend to try to save his legs.
And knowing, too, that so many children were maimed (and one killed). Unspeakable horror, what was done to these innocents.
But it also is sad when you see these very young men who have become so corrupted that they do such a thing. Guess I always wonder about their moms, how these babies were (presumably) so loved and cherished … only to become what they’ve become.
I’m thinking this guy won’t be captured alive. If he is, the death penalty certainly would be warranted. I’m not a big fan of the death penalty, I’ve always felt somewhat conflicted on that issue. But some crimes really do cry out for it.
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Fox is reporting one was a scholarship student, so they may be here on student visas. But now they say one was enrolled in a private high school.
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Roscuro, “feral” — graphic description.
It is curious what drew them to the U.S. & the Boston Marathon ? … perhaps there will be a paper trail one of them left behind, assuming the one suspect may not be captured alive.
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Now they’re saying it’s Chechnya/Turkey area they are from.
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The Real,
Or perhaps some kind of a warning. The 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia are located in the Caucasus, not far from Chechnya (and Georgia).
Donna,
They may have seen their mother brutally treated or killed by the Russians.
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NPR is reporting that a 3rd suspect has been arrested.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/19/177885868/shots-explosions-heard-as-boston-manhunt-continues
“Update at 7:30 a.m. ET. Arrest Of Third Person:
“A third man, who authorities believe was an accomplice of the bombing suspects, has been arrested according to NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston. He may be the man, seen in videos earlier Friday, who police ordered to strip naked and was then put in the back of a patrol car.”
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Hmm, somehow I got signed out… Well, the internet here can’t be described as reliable.
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Roscuro, got it (7:33); they are thinking the brothers may have been in the states for a few years, so I’m wondering if they have family/parents here?
And this was linked and looks like it was a page of his. Can anyone translate some of it?
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Some of the English posts on the page (I see they’re discussing it now on fox news as well — no, I haven’t gone to bed yet) are rather vile, however — so language warning.
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Never mind, don’t go there — looks like others now are adding posts that are truly disgusting. No need to read that.
People. Sigh. God have mercy on us all.
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Feel free to take the link down, AJ.
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These guys are here legally and did this. How many more are here either legally or illegally, waiting for their turn? The military should be called back from all over where they are not needed, and defend our borders After all, they are the part of the Department of Defense, not the Department of Occupy Foreign Lands.
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Profiles of suspects:
http://www.worldmag.com/2013/04/who_was_tamerlan_tsarnaev
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/04/19/boston-marathon-suspects
Not quite what one would expect, especially the younger brother, is it?
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Saw this just now from Reuters on Twitter:
Police are detaining someone, they have him handcuffed and he is on his back, dispatch audio says.
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not the suspect, though, it now says — another older man, unclear if he’s “involved.” Sheesh. Crazy making out there.
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Fox is saying they viewed the Facebook page of one of the brothers. Mostly in Russian. Very anti-Russia postings, and it appears to confirm he was muslim.
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NBC’s Richard Engel has tweeted that authorities are looking at ties to the Islamic Jihad Union.
Washington times has more here.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/19/moscow-paper-djohar-tsarnaev-talked-islamic-faith/
“Boston bombing suspect Dzhohar Tsarnaev said on his Russian social media page that his world view was “Islam,” while his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev talked about being “very religious” and complained there “are no values anymore,” according to an English-language Russian newspaper.
The Moscow Times story posted online gave new details about the two brothers believed to have carried out the deadly attack at the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a clash with police Thursday night, while his brother is the subject of a massive manhunt Friday morning.
According to the Moscow Times account, Dzhohar Tsarnaev belonged to two Chechnya-related groups on the Vkontakte social media network, a Russian-language version of Facebook. He last logged on to the site at 5:04 a.m. Moscow time, which would be 9:04 p.m. Thursday night in Boston.”
The IJU is an Al-Qaeda affiliate that trains jihadists and is aligned with the Afghan Taliban. More here on the connections from a piece last year at the LongWarJournal.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/02/islamic_jihad_union.php
And CAIR is in damage control mode.
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Oh, and that Salon journalist from yesterday who hoped it was a white guy is now yelling BIGOTS!! because news sources are pointing out the muslim connections. Just another tone-deaf lefty.
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AJ. @ 11:15
Islamic Jihad is the Shia equivalent to the Sunni Al Qaeda. Iran is almost totally Shia.
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Some people I know were also hoping the perpetrator(s) would be white and American … Their theory was that bigotry would be sparked (again as they feel it was post 9/11) if it were a Middle Eastern or Muslim terrorist.
It must be surreal today in Boston.
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Lots of questions — like why they didn’t attempt at least a minimum disguise (hair tucked under hats that were pulled low over their eyes, but at least the one brother wore sunglasses); and why they didn’t have a plan to get out of Dodge as soon as the deed was done and before anyone could figure out their identities.
Instead, they were quite recognizable from the surveillance footage and they apparently hung around town for days, giving authorities time to catch up to them.
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And we all know that if this had been the work of a white right winger it would not bring out any bigotry or judgment towards an entire group of people.
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An Uncle is claiming they immigrated here in 2003 and were given asylum.
The video of the Uncle’s press conference is towards the bottom of the page.
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/04/19/boston-thread-iii-chechnyas-islamist-president-on-suspects-seek-the-roots-of-evil-in-america/
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CBS is reporting that one of the brothers became a citizen on Sept. 11th of last year.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/19/report-boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-in-custody-second-at-large/
“CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reported the brothers were believed to be living legally in the U.S., but they were not here as students.
The network reported Friday afternoon that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became an American citizen on Sept. 11, 2012.”
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Then they insist that this is all they’re going to report, they soon run out of things to talk about.
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What? The bomber is still not caught? I spent several hours completely cut off from media updates only to come home to find we’re still in the same predicament we were in when I left this morning? No suspect? Huh?
Most of all, this makes me lament that I stayed up last night — since it’s made me so tired and punchy and spent. 😦 I do see where is mother thinks he’s innocent, however. 😉 Hey, maybe he is. But he’s not acting like it.
And another thing. About that tired use of the favorite term in news stories “right wing” (When you never hear “left-wing” thrown about so casually).
http://washingtonexaminer.com/why-coverage-of-right-wing-violence-irritates-conservatives/article/2527693
“The reason why conservatives get prickly about the focus on ‘right-wing’ violence is that in typical political coverage, the term ‘right wing’ is routinely applied to describe conservatives and conservative institutions.”
Exactly.
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I’m watching this press conference and I’m a little confused. They didn’t catch him, yet everyone should go about their business? How exactly does one do that with an armed mad bomber on the loose? They seem to be going out of their way to not admit he escaped.
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Immigrant alienation, religion, and traditional “homeland” animosities all mixed to make for the “perfect storm”, not to mention the narrow mindedness and certainty of youth. I’ll withhold any speculation of ties to any groups … it appears from the articles I read that they had a “normal” teen life in America. As for the method of bombing, a cursory search on google can give any number of ideas on how to make a bomb, there really isn’t’ a group specific signature anymore.
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HRW,
Normal upbringing maybe. But somewhere here recently they were radicalized. Persumably the older brother on recent trips to thier homeland. You can check those links above, despite what they may have been, they’re something else now. Those videos are the type popular among some of the most extreme people out there. It seems pretty obvious that’s a motivating factor here. I doubt it was the only factor, but given the tactics used in the bombing and shootout, at least the older one spent some time being trained in military tactics. My guess is his trips were for training in armed jihad. Sometimes it is exactly what it looks like.
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Fox is reporting the suspect is down after another shootout with police.
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At 1900 they say a suspect is down. I hope he isn’t dead. They can get some information from him.
But he probly is.
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Nothing I’ve read suggest to suggest extended stays in Checyha or elsewhere. Radicalized they seem to have been since graduating high school but one doesn’t have to travel overseas to experience a complete change. It would be interesting to see what caused the change …. frequently its something personal and then linked to something broader.
Tactically one minute they are pros and then next the keystone kops. I don’t see much training — no attempts at hiding, staying in town, etc. They could’ve left the bombs and been long gone by now.
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Fox says the suspect is down, alive, and surrounded.
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I’ll be very surprised if they take him alive. And I’m hearing on NBC (I changed stations when O’Reilly ? took over for Shepard Smith) that the boat is on fire. ? After all that gunfire, my guess is he’s gone — or will be by the time this is over.
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There’s a lot of questions to be answered with this case. And some serious questions about how authorities handled the deceased suspect in years prior.
I have to shut down for an hour or so. Really bad T-storms, hail, and a tornado watch. Yay. I can see it coming from the west. It’s kinda pretty. From a distance anyway. 😦
See ya’s later. Unless the power goes out. 😦
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NBC is also reporting, however, that a police negotiator has been brought to the scene to try to coax him out. But Brian Williams made the comment that it would be surprising if any communication were still going on after all the shots that have been heard — and now reports of fire.
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On twitter: Now a China earthquake. I’m starting to feel that the Mayans were one year off.
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Donna, O’Reilly annoys you too?
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Yes!
They’re saying suspect is alive and in custody. Good result.
Back to O’Reilly, I’ve never been a fan but find him to be getting increasingly grating in the past couple years. I just think it’s a huge mistake to have a commentator like that handle a big breaking news story. It requires a straight and neutral newsperson, not someone who doesn’t know when to talk and when to be quiet already.
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Fox says he is in custody. Evidently they have him alive.
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CNN saying the same thing—don’t ask why I am watching that.
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NBC has been doing a good job in covering this story — CNN has made some mistakes; Fox wasn’t bad last night, but they need to leave it in the hands of someone like Bret Baer (sp?) or even Shepard Smith, a competent newsperson. (I’m not crazy about Smith either, but on these fast-breaking stories he’s generally good; clear-headed and he knows how to get out of the way, unlike O’Reilly).
Maybe now we’ll get some more answers on what triggered this whole mess. It still just doesn’t make a lot of sense. But maybe it never will. 😦
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Donna, It’s safe to go back to FOX. I think O’Reilly’s gone
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🙂 Thank you kBells. Maybe I’m too hard on him, but it’s become like fingernails on a blackboard for me somehow.
funny post on twitter (for those of you who saw the rant today by the brothers’ uncle saying they were a disgrace):
Let the uncle have at him first.
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I wouldn’t, now it’s Hannity.
I think Shep did a good job today. Better than Geraldo and O’Reilly. The woman this afternoon was good too. Why do I want to say her name was Katherine Harris? Wasn’t she the AG during the Bush/Gore recount?
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I managed to get it over to NBC. It is nice watching the police drive out of the area and being cheered.
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News and commentary are two very different things — requiring very different skills.
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Kim, yes, that has brought a smile to my face as well — just seeing the relief and gratitude of these people who have had a horrible few days.
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Now they are predicting a wicked good part Boston tonight
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