The suspects have been identified now by numerous media, including the AP and Fox, as two brothers named Tsarnaev, who are Chechen. Suspect #2, allegedly the younger brother, is seen in convenience store security photo from last night. The AP claims to have an intelligence bulletin from law enforcement with the names. However, official reports have only said that the bombers have “overseas connections” and have still not formally identified these men.
The suspect on the run, is Suspect #2, the “white hat”. Suspect #1, “the “black hat” is now deceased.
Speaking of Suspect #2, “We believe this man to be a terrorist,” said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. “We believe this to be a man who’s come here to kill people.”
Overnight, many blogs identified other names as the suspects, including a missing university student. There is no connection reported between these other names and the bombing.
Via Washington Post:
Authorities shot and killed one suspect in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings and police were searching for a second suspect who was on the loose in Watertown, Mass., early Friday morning following a chaotic night that left one police officer dead and another critically wounded in the Boston suburbs.
All public transportation was shut down in the greater Boston area Friday morning, for reasons of public safety, officials said. Residents of Watertown and several surrounding suburbs were asked to stay inside, and businesses were instructed not to open.
“This situation is grave. We are here to protect public safety,” Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. “We believe these are the same individuals that were responsible for the bombings Monday at the Boston Marathon” and the killing and wounding of the police officers overnight.The mayhem began about 10:30 p.m. when an Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer responded to a disturbance. That officer was found fatally wounded inside his vehicle on the campus in Cambridge, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. The shooting launched a massive police response. A short time later authorities received reports of an armed carjacking by two males nearby in Cambridge. Police immediately began a search for a Mercedes SUV that had beentaken at gunpoint by the two males and was later spotted in neighboring Watertown, the district attorney’s office said.
Watertown police officers located the vehicle and after stopping it, exchanged gunfire with two men in a residential neighborhood. During the firefight, authorities said, multiple explosive devices were thrown from the vehicle and some exploded, which led to panic and concern in the town.
A transit police officer was critically wounded in the firefight, authorities said.
Police fatally shot one suspect during the firefight, the district attorney’s office said. He was taken to Beth Israel-Deaconness Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, doctors there said.
Update: Keep in mind Chechnya is a hotbed of Islamist militancy.
Update: This would be the first attack by Chechen Islamists in the global jihad.
MOSCOW (AP) — Militants from Chechnya and other restive regions in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus have targeted Moscow and other areas with bombings and hostage-takings, but the allegations of involvement in the Boston Marathon explosions would mark the first time they had conducted a terror attack in the West.
The conflict in Chechnya began in 1994 as a separatist war, but has quickly morphed into an Islamic insurgency whose adepts vow to carve out an independent Islamic state in the Caucasus.
Militants from Chechnya and neighboring provinces have launched a long series of terror attacks in Russia, including a 2002 hostage-taking raid in Moscow’s theater, in which 129 hostages died, a 2004 hostage-taking in a school in Beslan that killed more than 330 people, and numerous bombings in Moscow and other cities.
Update: In March, Chechen jihadists formed their own brigade of fighters in the Syrian civil war, they are fighting alongside al Nusra Front.
Update: Via The Blaze:
CNN reports the family fled Chechnya for Kazakhstan several years ago before ending up in Boston.
The older (deceased) brother was a college student at Bunker Community College, had aspired to become an engineer. He once posted on a social media account, “I don’t have any American friends, I don’t understand them.”
CNN states on air, “They are Islamic.”
Update: Via TPM:
The first suspect in the Boston marathon bombing, who has been killed earlier Friday, has been identified as 26-year-old Tamerlan Tzarnaev, brother of Dzhokhar Tzarnaev, who still remains at large, according to NBC’s Pete Williams.
Update: The profile of the suspect who’s still on the run. HT: Lynn
Update: Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s YouTube page is here. One example of what he posted is below:
Update: Boston PD is worried the suspect may have a suicide vest on.
(TheDC) — Boston PD scanner: “All officers, use extreme caution. Suspect may have suicide vest on”
Update: NBC reporting they may have located him.
Upate:
(DC) — Foot pursuit at Willow Park. … Watertown PD is responding. … Police are on Dexter by Willow Park, #17, pursuing a suspect in a dark hoodie. … From the scanner: “All units use caution, there’s plainclothes officers in there also.” … “Some officers, stay on Dexter in case he doubles back. Somebody get back here! … Guys, get behind cover. Warning: Use caution on approach. Trigger was found on body at the morgue.” … “Start a tactical team down here, please.”
Upate: Picture of SWAT surrounding a Watertown home (not far from Cambridge).
Upate:
(NBC) — With a bomb strapped to his chest, one of the Boston Marathon suspects was killed early Friday after he and his accomplice brother robbed a 7-Eleven, shot a police officer to death, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives in an extraordinary firefight with law enforcement, authorities told NBC News.
The second suspect — the one in the white hat in photos released by the FBI — was on the loose. Gov. Deval Patrick ordered the entire city of Boston and some suburbs to stay inside during what he called a “massive manhunt,” and police began a house-to-house search. Boston shut down its buses and subway system.
The suspects are brothers of Chechen origin with the last name Tsarnaev, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The suspect at large, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is 19, was born in Kyrgyzstan and has a Massachusetts driver’s license, they said. The dead suspect was identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, born in Russia.
Update: New image of suspect on the run.
Via Daily Mail, a photo of suspect during firefight (note bomb explosion on ground). Remind anyone else of Mumbai?
Update: Pic of Watertown house.
Update: Could be something, or not.
Update: My dad passes along a fun fact, Cambridge is a “sanctuary” city.
Update: Car has Mass plates (HT: BlueStateRebel)
NIAGARA FALLS, NY — A police source tells 2 On Your Side that New York State Police have pulled over a vehicle in Niagara Falls allegedly with two Russian nationals in the vehicle.
The car was pulled over at 19th and Elmwood in the Falls.
Bomb techs and a robot are being used to investigate four suspicious backpacks in the vehicle.
Another source tells us the vehicle has Massachusetts license plates.
The FBI tells 2 On Your Side they are aware of the situation and that their joint-terrorism task force is assisting the NYSP.
Update: Whoever is inside isn’t getting out alive unless he surrenders. Pic via Boston Globe.
Update: There’s a fake Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Twitter account floating around (supposedly posting today), this one according to Anonymous is the real deal, last post December 27th.
Update: Remember that Salon lefty who hope the terrorist was a “white American?” Today he’s calling us bigots for pointing out they are Islamic terrorists.
