Friday, April 19, 2013

Boston bomb suspects are brothers, last name Tsarnaev, have been in US about a year, have military experience. Shot MIT cop in the head, robbed 7-11, carjacked a Mercedes SUV, threw explosives out window as they drove, one strapped IED to his chest

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4/19/13, "One Boston Marathon suspect killed; second suspect, his brother, on loose after firefight," usnews.nbcnews.com, by Pete Williams, Richard Esposito, Michael Isikoff and Erin McClam, NBC News

"With a bomb strapped to his chest, one of the Boston Marathon suspects was killed early Friday after he and his accomplice robbed a 7-Eleven, shot a police officer to death, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives out the window 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, and police ordered people in the Boston suburb of Watertown to stay in their homes and businesses not to open. Boston shut down its buses and subway system for the hunt.

The suspects are brothers with the last name Tsarnaev, law enforcement officials told NBC News.

The suspect at large, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, is 19 and has a Massachusetts driver’s license, they said. Law enforcement officials told NBC News that both men had international ties, had been in the United States about a year and had military experience.

The chaotic sequence of events started six hours after the FBI triggered a nationwide manhunt by releasing photos of the suspects, believed responsible for detonating two bombs at the marathon finish line Monday, killing three people and injuring 176.

Watertown resident Andrew Kitzenberg says he had a "clear line of view" of what he said looked "like a pressure cooker bomb."
The suspect at large was described by authorities as light-skinned and with brown, curly hair, and wearing a gray hoodie.

“There is a terrorist on the loose,” a law enforcement officer said at a press conference before dawn.
Police shut a 4-mile stretch of streets between Cambridge, Mass., and Watertown because they could be littered with unexploded devices, and they locked down Watertown. A convey of at least 20 vehicles, including military-style humvees and buses, was seen descending on the town.

“I just want to speak to the community of Watertown. We need your help now. We are asking everyone to shelter into your place,” Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau said. “The Watertown community has always stood strong. We need them to do that today.”

Harvard University, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston public schools all closed. Emerson University closed and told students to stay where they were.

Andrew Kitzenberg, who lives in Watertown, said he saw the two men shooting at six police cars from 70 or 80 yards away.

“There was a long exchange of gunfire,” told NBC News in an interview. “They were also utilizing bombs, which sounded and looked like grenades, while engaging in the gunfight,” he said. “They also had what looked like a pressure-cooker bomb.”...

Law enforcement officials said the tumult began just before 11 p.m., when the suspects approached a police officer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and shot him in the head.

The two then stole the officer’s cruiser, robbed a nearby 7-Eleven, carjacked a Mercedes SUV and briefly kidnapped the driver, the sources said. The suspects threw explosives out the window during the chase that followed, they said. A Boston transit police officer was shot and wounded, authorities said.

The dead suspect — the man in the black hat from the FBI photos — had an improvised explosive device strapped to his chest, law enforcement officials said.

Kitzenberg said that the firefight ended when one of the shooters ran toward the Watertown officers and ultimately fell to the ground. Kitzenberg said he could not tell whether the man was tackled or had been shot.

The other drove the SUV through a line of police offcers at the end of the street, he said. A bullet from the gunbattle lodged in the wall of Kitzenberg’s apartment, he said.

Kitzenberg said that while he had a clear view of the shooters, he could not see their faces. He described them as “average size, average height.”"

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