Boston police: Bombing suspect is in custody
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was hiding in boat in neighborhood near Boston. 'Terror is over; justice has won,' police announce via Twitter. Obama: Capture closes 'important chapter in this tragedy'
A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead.
Police announced via Twitter that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in custody. They later wrote, "CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody."
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Tsarnaev's brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, was killed early Friday in a furious attempt to escape police.
Suspect in ambulance (Photo: AP)
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been hiding in a boat in a Massachusetts neighborhood near Boston. The crowd gathered near the scene let out a cheer when spectators saw officers clapping.
"Everyone wants him alive," said Kathleen Paolillo, a 27-year-old teacher who lives in the area.
Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted, "We got him," along with a photo of the police commissioner speaking to him. Watertown residents poured out of their homes and lined the streets to cheer police vehicles as they rolled away from the scene.
Watertown residents celebrating arrest (Photo: Reuters)
President Barack Obama said the capture of the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing closes what he calls "an important chapter in this tragedy."
Obama said there are still many unanswered questions about the bombings, including whether the two men had help from others. He is urging the public to not rush to judgment about their motivations.
Residents cheer after suspect caught (Photo: EPA)
During a long night of violence Thursday into Friday, the brothers killed a police officer, severely wounded another officer and hurled explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle, authorities said.
The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechen brothers who had lived in Dagestan, which neighbors Chechnya in southern Russia. They had been in the US for about a decade, an uncle said, and were believed to be living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 and was seen in surveillance footage of the marathon in a black baseball cap, was killed overnight, officials said. His younger brother, who had been dubbed Suspect No. 2 and was seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the images from Monday's deadly bombing _ escaped a shootout and had been on the run.
Police announce suspect's capture (Photo: Reuters)
Their uncle in Maryland, Ruslan Tsarni, pleaded on live television Friday: "Dzhokhar, if you are alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness."
The bombings on Monday killed three people, including a student from China, and wounded more than 180, instantly raising the specter of another terrorist attack on US soil.
Suspect evacuated from scene in ambulance (Photo: Reuters)
Investigators in the Boston case have shed no light on the motive for the bombing and have said it is unclear whether it was the work of domestic or international terrorists.
A federal law enforcement official said the FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaevt at the request of a foreign government in 2011 and that nothing derogatory was found.
Deserted Boston, Friday noon (Photo: AP)
The FBI shared its information with the foreign government, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about the case publicly. The official did not say what country made the request about Tamerlan Tsarnaev or why.
The search by thousands of law enforcement officers all but paralyzed the Boston area for much of the day. Officials shut down all mass transit, including Amtrak trains to New York, advised businesses not to open, and warned close to 1 million people in the entire city and some of its suburbs to stay inside and unlock their doors only for uniformed police. The Red Sox and Bruins postponed their baseball games.
Some neighborhoods resembled a military encampment, with officers patrolling with guns drawn and aimed, residents peering nervously from windows and people near surrounded buildings spirited away.
Law enforcement officers during manhunt (Photo: AFP)
The brothers had built an arsenal of pipe bombs, grenades and improvised explosive devices and used some of the weapons in trying to make their getaway, said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Another uncle, Alvi Tsarnaev, who also lives in Montgomery Village, Maryland, told news organizations that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had called him Thursday night _ hours before his firefight with police _ and the two spoke for the first time in two or three years. He said the young man asked for forgiveness for the rift in the family.
Younger brother Dzhokhar at highschool prom (Photo: AP)
"He said, `I love you and forgive me,'" the uncle said.
Tsarni, the men's uncle, said the brothers traveled here together from Russia. He called his nephews "losers" and said they had struggled to settle in the US and ended up "thereby just hating everyone."
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Photo: AP)
The men's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said in a telephone interview with AP from the Russian city of Makhachkala that his younger son, Dzhokhar, is "a true angel." He said his son was studying medicine.
"He is such an intelligent boy," the father said. "We expected him to come on holidays here."
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was registered as a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Students said he lived in a dorm there and was on campus this week after the Boston Marathon bombing. The campus closed down Friday along with colleges around the Boston area.
The city of Cambridge announced two years ago that it had awarded a $2,500 scholarship to him. At the time, he was a senior at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, a highly regarded public school whose alumni include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing.
US government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk about an investigation in progress, said Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Russia last year and returned to the US six months later.
He had studied accounting as a part-time student at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston for three semesters from 2006 to 2008, the school said.
According to the FBI, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was seen setting down a bag at the site of the second of two explosions at the marathon finish line.
Shortly before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's capture, the White House said President Obama has spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the investigation.
Obama "praised the close cooperation that the United States has received from Russia on counter-terrorism, including in the wake of the Boston attack," the White House said in a statement.
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