Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the gruesome Boston Marathon bombings, was finally cornered and captured by law enforcement officials on Friday evening, after a dramatic day-long manhunt that had Boston on lockdown.
The 19-year-old, whose older brother and alleged accomplice Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police early Friday morning, is alive and in custody after a separate lengthy standoff with police, several news outlets reported late Friday evening.
The confrontation between police and the younger Tsarnaev reportedly came mere minutes after the police, having finished their door-to-door search of Watertown, Mass., without finding Tsarnaev, lifted their day-long lockdown. Here's the local CBS affiliate WBZ:
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong was in the area of Franklin Street when he heard what he described as 15-20 seconds of rapid gunfire. He was forced to take cover, and was quickly moved back by police.
Boston Mayor Tom Menino confirmed to WBZ-TV that police had surrounded bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the backyard of a home. [WBZ]
Tsarnaev was reportedly hiding in a boat in that backyard. A variety of news outlets reported that Tsarnaev was covered in blood, and that the boat had actually been on fire. [Update, 9:50 p.m. ET: At a press conference, officials said Tsarnaev had lost a significant amount of blood, was in "serious condition," and had been taken to a hospital.]
Ever since Monday's sickening attack near the finish line of the celebratory, heavily-attended Boston Marathon — in which the attackers packed pressure cookers with metal shards, ball bearings, and nails — Americans across the country have been captivated by the hunt for the culprits. Days passed with only thin speculation and false reports, until Thursday afternoon, when the FBI released photos and video of the Tsarnaev brothers. (Related: The Tsarnaev brothers: What we know about the Boston bombing suspects). Mere hours later, the Tsarnaevs, still in the Boston area, allegedly shot an MIT police officer and car-jacked a Mercedes SUV before being tracked down by police. A fearsome firefight followed in the wee hours of Friday morning, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed. The younger brother escaped, and was nowhere to be found until turning up in a boat in a Watertown backyard on Friday evening.
See the latest tweets on the story here:
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And read more of TheWeek.com's Boston Marathon bombing coverage:
* The Tsarnaev brothers: What we know about the Boston bombing suspects
* 10 smart reads on the Boston Marathon bombing
* Marc Ambinder: The insanity of blaming Islam
* Inside Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Twitter account
* 4 innocent people wrongly accused of being Boston Marathon bombing suspects
* The Boston Marathon bombing and Chechnya's long history of terrorism
* D.B. Grady: Boston is a tragedy, but it's not your tragedy
