Police officers guard the entrance to Franklin street where there is an active crime scene search for the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Watertown, Mass. Gunfire erupted Friday night amid the manhunt for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, and police in armored vehicles and tactical gear rushed into the Watertown neighborhood in a possible break in the case.WATERTOWN, Mass. – A 19-year-old Massachusetts college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombing was captured hiding in a boat parked in a backyard Friday night and his older brother lay dead in a furious 24-hour drama that transfixed the nation and paralyzed the Boston area.
“CAPTURED!!!” the Boston police tweeted in news that set off celebrations across the metropolitan area and finally broke the tension. “The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.”
The bloody endgame came four days after the bombing and just a day after the FBI released surveillance-camera images of two young men suspected of planting the pressure-cooker explosives that ripped through the crowd at the marathon finish line, killing three people and wounding more than 180.
The two men were identified by authorities and relatives as ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who had been in the U.S. for about a decade and were believed to be living in Cambridge, Mass. But investigators gave no details on the motive for the bombing.
Early Friday morning, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a ferocious gun battle and car chase during which he and his younger brother hurled explosives at police from a stolen car, authorities said. The younger brother managed to escape.