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One Boston bombing suspect dead; one sought
by Yamiche Alcindor, Donna Leinwand and William M. Welch
BOSTON -- One of the suspects wanted in Monday's Boston Marathon bombing was shot and killed by police and a manhunt was underway for the second suspect, authorities said Friday.
Colonel Timothy P. Alben, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police said the first suspect from Monday's bombing was shot by police in a gunfight following a pursuit that began Thursday night in Cambridge and ended a short time later in nearby Watertown. He said that suspect died at a hospital.
Alben said the second suspect, seen in FBI-released photographs wearing a white cap, is still at large. 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.
Alben described the second suspect as a light-skinned or Caucasian male with brown curly haird ressed in a gray hooded type sweat shirt.
"We are concerned about securing the area and making sure this individual is taken into custody," he said. "We believe this to be a terrorist. We believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people."
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told reporters the man they are seeking is armed and dangerous. A transit police officer was also critically wounded in the pursuit.
Police did not provide the suspects' names.
A transit police officer was reported in critical condition after being shot.
The manhunt for the marathon bombing suspects turned into hot pursuit at 10:30 p.m., when the two men robbed a 7-11 convenience store on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Alben said. A few minutes later, police found an MiT campus police officer shot multiple times in his car, Alben said.
The police officer died of his injuries at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The suspects then car-jacked a Mercedes SUV, Alben said. Police found the car and the suspects in Watertown, and pursued them into a residential neighborhood where gunfire was exchanged.
Witnesses report hearing between 15 and 50 shots.
Alben said the suspects also threw explosives from the car. Residents, witnesses and media in the area heard at least two large booms.
A Massachusetts law enforcement official, speaking on condition he not be identified by name, said that the suspect who died is thought to be the first suspect in the FBI photos of the alleged bombers, wearing a dark hat.
The Middlesex district attorney's office said in a statement that police responded to reports of an armed carjacking by two males who held a victim at gunpoint for half an hour before being released uninjured.
Police could be seen with guns drawn one one man face down on a paved street. CNN later reported that man was released by police.
The Massachusetts State Police issued a Tweet at 3:45 a.m. saying police "will be going door by door, street by street, in and around Watertown'' searching for the at-large suspect.
The state police also advised residents in and around Watertown to stay inside. "Do NOT answer door unless it is an identified police officer,'' the department said.
The events unfolded overnight as the entire Boston metro area was on high alert following Monday's fatal bomb explosions during the Boston Marathon and as the FBI was leading a massive manhunt for suspects. The developments came on a day when the FBI issued photographs of two men that it said it is seeking and were seen in surveillance video carrying backpacks in the marathon race crowd on Monday before the twin explosions.
"I heard sirens, then a ton of gunshots.,'' said Adam Healy, 31, a behavioral specialist for autism who lives less than a mile from the scene. "And then I heard an explosion amid the gunshots. After the explosion, the sky lit up. "
Dan MacDonald, 40, sitting in a second story Watertown apartment, said he first heard sirens, then gunshots.
"It was about 10 to 15 shots. then there was an onslaught," he said. "There were 25 to 60 shots within 45 seconds. Then the shots stopped and boom. It was like dynamite."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/04/19/suspect-in-custody-newspaper-says/2095845
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From the White House
President Obama: "The American People Refuse to be Terrorized"
Following a briefing from FBI Director Mueller, Attorney General Holder, Secretary Napolitano, and homeland security advisor Lisa Monaco, President Obama went to the Brady Press Briefing Room to update Americans on developments in Boston, following two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon.
"We continue to mobilize and deploy all appropriate law enforcement resources to protect our citizens, and to investigate and to respond to this attack," the President said in a televised address. "Obviously our first thoughts this morning are with the victims, their families, and the city of Boston. We know that two explosions gravely wounded dozens of Americans, and took the lives of others, including a 8-year-old boy.
"This was a heinous and cowardly act. And given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism. Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror. What we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual."
The President assured the American people that while it will take time to determine what happened, "we will find whoever harmed our citizens. And we will bring them to justice."
In addition to highlighting the tremendous acts of heroism by the men and women of the FBI, the Boston Police Department, and other agencies and first responders yesterday, the President praised the kindness, generosity and love that was on display throughout the city of Boston in the aftermath of the bombings. "if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil -- that's it. Selflessly. Compassionately. Unafraid."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/16/president-obama-american-people-refuse-be-terrorized
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In the Face of Evil, Boston Has Shown that Americans Will Lift Up What Is Good
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama today were at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross to attend Healing Our City, an interfaith service dedicated to those who were gravely wounded or killed in Monday's bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
In his remarks, the President paid tribute to those whose lives were taken by the bomb blasts on Boylston Street -- to Krystle Campbell, 29, who was "always smiling." And to Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old graduate student from China who had come to "experience all this city has to offer." And finally to Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy from Dorchester whose mother and sister remain in the hospital, fighting to recover from their own injuries. Martin, said President Obama, leaves us with two enduring images, 'forever smiling for his beloved Bruins, and forever expressing a wish he made on a blue poster board: 'No more hurting people. Peace.'"
President Obama also praised the people of Boston, a city both he and the First Lady once called home. Like thousands every year, the two lived there as students -- just one of the many reasons, the President said, that Boston has a hold on so many hearts. "Every fall, you welcome students from all across America and all across the globe, and every spring you graduate them back into the world -- a Boston diaspora that excels in every field of human endeavor," he said. "Year after year, you welcome the greatest talents in the arts and science, research -- you welcome them to your concert halls and your hospitals and your laboratories to exchange ideas and insights that draw this world together."
In fact, the President said, whichever terrorists are behind the attack on Monday picked the wrong city as a target, because Boston will not be terrorized or intimidated:
You've shown us, Boston, that in the face of evil, Americans will lift up what's good. In the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion. In the face of those who would visit death upon innocents, we will choose to save and to comfort and to heal. We'll choose friendship. We'll choose love.
Scripture teaches us, “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” And that's the spirit you've displayed in recent days.
When doctors and nurses, police and firefighters and EMTs and Guardsmen run towards explosions to treat the wounded -- that's discipline.
When exhausted runners, including our troops and veterans -- who never expected to see such carnage on the streets back home -- become first responders themselves, tending to the injured -- that's real power.
When Bostonians carry victims in their arms, deliver water and blankets, line up to give blood, open their homes to total strangers, give them rides back to reunite with their families -- that's love.
That's the message we send to those who carried this out and anyone who would do harm to our people. Yes, we will find you. And, yes, you will face justice. We will find you. We will hold you accountable. But more than that; our fidelity to our way of life -- to our free and open society -- will only grow stronger. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power and love and self-discipline.
After the service, President and Mrs. Obama stopped by Boston's Cathedral High School to thank some of Boston's first responders and volunteers for their tireless efforts over the past few days, and then the President visited patients, their families and hospital staff at Massachusetts General Hospital, while the First Lady stopped by Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/18/face-evil-boston-has-shown-americans-will-lift-what-good
