Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
From the Boston Globe:
The Boston Globe reports, People in Boston, surrounding communities, told to stay indoors as hunt for Marathon bombing suspect continues in Watertown:
WATERTOWN — A massive manhunt is underway this morning in Boston and
several surrounding communities for one of the suspects in the Boston
Marathon terror bombing attacks. A second suspect has died in a
confrontation with police, while one police officer has been killed and
another has been seriously wounded.
At 8:45 a.m., a SWAT team and armored car had been summoned and
police were surrounding a home and a car near the intersection of Willow
Park and Quimby in Watertown, the community that officials said is the
focus of their search.
“They’re pointed across the street. Guns are pointed across the
street. There have been hundreds of cops here throughout the day,” said
Natalie, a resident of Willow Park, who declined to give her last name.
Governor Deval Patrick asked people who live in the entire city of
Boston, as well as the nearby communities of Watertown, Waltham, Newton,
Belmont, Cambridge, to “shelter in place” — stay inside and not open
their doors to anyone, except police with proper identification.
The search has also led to the sudden shutdown of the MBTA’s entire
network of commuter rail, bus, and subway services. Taxi service was
shut down. And officials requested businesses across the area not to
open this morning.
“This is a serious situation. We’re taking it seriously,” Patrick said at an 8 a.m. media briefing in Watertown.
Colonel Timothy Alben, commander of the State Police, said law
enforcement’s focus this morning is on neighborhoods in Watertown, where
police are hoping to find the individual. Police surrounded an address
on Willow Park at mid-morning.
Authorities are searching for the man they dubbed Suspect No. 2 — the
man wearing a white baseball cap. Suspect No. 1 — the man wearing the
black cap — is dead.
The night of chaos began just hours after law enforcement released
images Thursday afternoon of two suspects in the bombings at the Boston
Marathon finish line Monday afternoon that left three people dead and
more than 170 wounded.
The suspect is Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, a government official said
this morning. The Associated Press reported this morning that the
suspects came from the Russian region near Chechnya, which has been
plagued by an Islamic insurgency.The Globe has also learned that the
dead suspect is Tsarnaev’s brother.
A law enforcement source told the Globe that an explosive trigger was found on the dead brother’s body at the morgue.
An MIT police officer was killed and an MBTA Transit Police
officer, Richard H. Donahue Jr., 33, was wounded. Ten 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 source did not have information about where the officers were
from or the nature of their injuries.
* * *
“We believe these are the same individuals that were responsible for
the bombing Monday at the Marathon,’’ Colonel Timothy Alben, commander
of the State Police, said today. “We believe that they are responsible
for the death of an MIT police officer and the shooting of an MBTA
police officer. This is a very serious situation that we are dealing
with.’’
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis this morning said Suspect
No. 2 is the person being sought by a massive collection of federal,
state, and municipal police. He is believed to be the suspect who
actually dropped the bombs at the race finish line.
“We believe this to be a terrorist,’’ Davis told reporters about 4:30
a.m. today. “We believe this to be a man here to kill people.”
Police warned residents in East Watertown to stay in their homes, and
not to answer the door unless they see a uniformed police officer
outside. They said drivers should not stop in the area roughly bounded
by Dexter, Laurel, and Arsenal streets.
According to Alben, the night’s outbreak of violence began when
police received reports of a robbery of a convenience store in Kendall
Square near MIT. A few minutes later, an MIT police officer, who has not
been identified, was shot multiple times while in his cruiser at Main
and Vassar streets, near Building 32, better known as the renowned Stata
Center on the MIT campus.
The officer was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital. A
short time later, two men carjacked a Mercedes SUV at gunpoint, and the
owner of that car was able to flee at a gas station on Memorial Drive.
The SUV proceeded out Memorial Drive toward Watertown followed by a
long train of police vehicles in pursuit. At one point during the
pursuit, the two suspects opened fire on Watertown police and Donahue,
the Transit Police officer, was shot. He remains in stable condition at
Mt. Auburn Hospital, the hospital said this morning.
During the gunfight, Suspect No. 1 was wounded and was taken into
custody. This morning, Dr. Richard Wolfe said the man was brought to the
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center emergency room about 1:10 a.m.
with multiple traumatic injuries.
“It was more than gunshot wounds,’’ Wolfe told reporters about 5:30
a.m. today. “It was a combination of injuries. We believe a combination
of of blasts, multiple gunshot wounds.”
Wolfe said it looked like the man had been hurt by an “explosive
device’’ and that the man was struck by “shrapnel.’’ The man was
pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. The hospital officials said they did not
know his name.
There is live coverage of the law enforcement action in Watertown on cable networks this morning. Expect the networks to join the coverage shortly.
