UPDATED 1:15 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Suspect 1 in the Boston Marathon bombings is reported dead after an overnight battle with police; Suspect 2 is reportedly still on the loose. There are concerns he may be armed with explosives.
The FBI this morning identified Suspect 2 as Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19. (See newly released photo at left.) USA Today has identified the dead suspect as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the younger man’s brother.
Greater Boston essentially is on lockdown, with residents instructed to remain inside their homes. Separately, authorities have confirmed the death of one police officer who apparently encountered the suspects last night on or near the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has described a massive police presence in the Boston region as part of an “ongoing manhunt for a person wanted in connection with Monday’s Marathon bombings.”
“[A]ll MBTA services (buses and subway) have been suspended effective immediately,” the governor’s office said. “People should not go to or congregate at transportation stations.
“Residents in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge and the Allston Brighton neighborhoods of Boston are advised to stay home from work and stay in doors,” the governor’s office continued. “Residents should not answer the door unless it is a police officer, and are advised to stay away from windows. All businesses in these towns will remain closed until further notice. People should not congregate outside.”
Details remain murky. The New York Times is reporting that “[t]he two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings led police on a wild and deadly chase through the suburbs here early Friday morning that ended in the death of one of the suspects as well as a campus police officer; the other suspect remained at large while hundreds of police officers conduct a manhunt through Watertown, about five miles west of downtown Boston.”
The Boston Globe is reporting that a police officer employed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was killed and an MBTBA police officer was wounded.
“Ten police officers were being evaluated at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton early this morning, according to a source, who said the officers said they were hurt from grenades being thrown from the window of a car during a car chase,” the Globe reported. “The source did not have information about where the officers were from or the nature of their injuries.”
The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office this morning identified the slain MIT police officer as Sean Collier, 26, of Somerville. Collier had been an MIT officer since January 2012, the agency said. He was found shot in his police car about 10:30 p.m. yesterday.
“A short time later, police received reports of an armed carjacking by two males in the area of Third Street in Cambridge,” the District Attorney’s Office said. “The victim was carjacked at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half hour. The victim was released at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. He was not injured.”