A manhunt is underway for the second of two suspects in the Boston bombing earlier this week. Police killed one of the suspects overnight in a bloody shootout, which ensued after a chase in which the suspects reportedly threw explosives at the officers who were chasing them.
This morning 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still on the run. His brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in the police shootout. Authorities said he had explosives strapped to his chest. The violence overnight started with reports of gunshots on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge. Soon after, the body of the slain campus officer was discovered.
The officer had been responding to a robbery at a nearby convenience store when the shootout began. The suspects then apparently carjacked a driver and led police on an eight-mile chase, tossing explosives out of the vehicle’s window at officers who were chasing them. Police caught up to the suspects in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where the shootout took place and Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed. A transit officer was seriously wounded in that shootout.
At this hour, authorities are going door to door in the Boston metropolitan area, searching for Tsarnaev. Boston residents are told to stay in their homes and away from windows. Authorities also told them not to answer their doors unless there is an officer with a badge on the other side of it. Businesses, schools and public transportation in the area are all shut down for the day.
The overnight violence began about five hours after the FBI released photos of the two suspects in the bombing. Tips about the suspects’ identities were coming in when the first shootout of last night began on the campus of MIT.
The Associated Press reported that the Tsarnaev brothers came to Massachusetts about a year ago from Chechnya. Officials say the deceased suspect apparently planted the first bomb at the Boston Marathon on Monday. Three people died and 183 others were injured in the blast.
If you have any leads or have seen Tsarnaev, call the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Video Credit: SkyNewsNational
