[Vision2020] One Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed, another at large

Fri Apr 19 03:23:22 PDT 2013

Courtesy of the Boston Globe at:

http://tinyurl.com/bu2g5hu

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One Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed, another at large
WATERTOWN — Police this morning are searching a 20-block area here for one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects after a violent night during which an MIT Police officer lost his life and a Transit Police officer was seriously wounded in a firefight. The other Boston Marathon bombing suspect, who was wearing a black hat in photos released Thursday evening, is dead after firing bullets and launching explosives at police.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said the man now known as Marathon bombing Suspect #2, the man with the white baseball cap who actually dropped the bombs at the race finish line, is the person being sought by a massive collection of federal, state, and municipal police.

“We believe this to be a terrorist,’’ Davis told reporters about 4:30 a.m. today. “We believe this to be a man here to kill people.”

Police are warning residents in East Watertown to stay in their homes, and not to answer the door unless they see a uniformed police officer outside. They said drivers should not stop in the area roughly bounded by Dexter, Laurel, and Arsenal

The officer was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital.According to State Police Colonel Timothy Alben, the night’s outbreak of violence began about 10:30 p.m. police received reports of a robbery of a convenience store in Kendall Square near MIT. A few minutes later, an MIT police officer, who has not been identified, was shot multiple times while in his cruiser at Main and Vassar streets, near Building 32, better known as the renowned the Stata Center on the MIT campus.

A short time later, two men carjacked a Mercedes SUV at gunpoint, and the owner of that car was able to flee at a gas station on Memorial Drive. The SUV proceeded out Memorial Drive toward Watertown followed by a long train of police vehicles in pursuit.

At one point during the pursuit, the two suspects opened fire on Watertown police and a Transit Police officer, who was shot and who is now in critical condition at a Boston-area hospital this morning.

During the gunfight, the man known as Marathon suspect #1 was wounded. He was taken into custody and later died at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Alben said.

Police have since been searching for the other bombing suspect.

The night’s chaos began about six hours after law enforcement released images of suspects in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings that left three people dead and 170 wounded. After responding to the shooting at MIT, police streamed to Watertown, sirens blaring.

There, the night was punctuated with gunfire and explosions.

Police warned that spectators were in danger. At Arsenal Court and Arsenal Street in Watertown, an officer bellowed: “Ya gotta get outta here. There’s an active shooter here with an active explosive. Go!”

Peter Jennings, 33, said he was sleeping just before 1 a.m. in his home on Prentiss Street when he was awakened by a huge boom.

“It sounded like a stick of dynamite went off,” he said. “I looked out the window, and it was like nothing I’ve ever seen – blue light after blue light after blue light.”

He said more than three dozen emergency vehicles were heading down Route 16 West. He went to the end of his street, where some neighbors were gathering. The air, he said, smelled like “at the end of a fireworks show, like a wick smell.”

“I had a bad feeling because of what happened on Monday,” he said.

John Antonucci’s 79-year-old mother called him hysterical from her home in Laurel Street. She heard about five gunshots and didn’t know what to do.

“She was saying they’re running down the street shooting,” Antonucci said, standing outside yellow police tape. “She was crying so hard I couldn’t understand what she was talking about.”

So he told her: Stay inside the house.

Residents describe the neighborhood as safe and family oriented, where they leave doors and windows open, and feed stray cats.

Standing at Quimby Street and Nichols Avenue as police officers hastily strung up caution tape, Lindsay Gaylord, 25, and Collin Ausfeld, 26, peered over the scene to get a glimpse of their apartment about a block away on Dartmouth Street.

“I was buying ice cream right there” -- Gaylord pointed to a structure a few steps away, behind the caution tape -- “just this afternoon.”

Ausfeld stared at the crime scene in front of him, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. As an afterthought, he muttered, “I hope the apartment doesn’t blow up.”

The couple said they moved to the neighborhood in January, leaving behind their Belmont place, because Watertown was closer to the city, and their block was quiet, safe, and friendly.

“After this, I still feel safe on this street,” Gaylord said. “I mean, you just never know with these things.”

Adam Healy, 31, said he stepped outside for a cigarette near one of the shooting scenes in Watertown, when he heard gunfire.

“I just heard tons of gunshots,” he said. “Gunshot, gunshot, gunshot, gunshot. Then I saw an explosion and saw a burst of light in the sky.”

Imran Saif, a cab driver, was parking his car for the night near Dexter and School streets and was preparing to bike home to Cambridge when he heard a series of loud noises that he said “sounded like fireworks.” He said he biked toward the sounds, thinking they were fireworks, when people in nearby houses began waving him back, telling him it was gunfire.

“It just sounded like there was automatic weapons going off, and I heard a few explosions,” he said. “They sounded like fireworks, mostly, big fireworks going off -- tons, I’d say. I’m really scared. When I found out it was gunshots, that just knocked the wind out of me.”

Dan MacDonald, who lives on Bigelow Avenue and Mount Auburn Street, near Watertown Square, said he was watching TV and talking with his girlfriend when they began hearing sirens -- just a few at first, then more -- “maybe five or seven, racing at this point.” Then in the distance they heard gunshots, about 15, he said, within 10 seconds.

“I kind of ran downstairs and came outside,” he said. “They were coming from the Arsenal Street area up Bigelow Avenue. There were about 10 cop cars, they took a left on Mount Auburn Street heading toward Galen Street.”

The bedlam in Watertown was preceded by a spasm of violence in Kendall Square, in Cambridge.

At MIT earlier during this drama, the university issued an alert to students and faculty to remain inside, which was later lifted.

An eerie quiet descended on the campus as teams of police officers combed the campus block by block. SWAT teams were present.

At MGH tonight, family members of the officer shot and killed declined to comment. About a dozen gathered outside the hospital’s emergency room, hugging and consoling one another through the night.

Siddhartha Varshney was walking home from dinner with two friends when they were stopped at the police cordon.

“Initially, we thought they had caught the suspect in the bombing,” the 28-year-old said. But they then learned it was a shooting involving an MIT officer.

“Well, I — honestly — I mean, I can’t think what I make of it. The situation is a little tense,” he said. “And I hope that whoever he is gets caught.”

Few seemed to be out on the campus at the time of the shooting. One professor, standing feet from the police tape, said he came out of his office when he heard a commotion of sirens and saw police lights.

Early Friday, MIT issued a statement about the death of the officer. “MIT is heartbroken by the news that an MIT Police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty on Thursday night on campus. Our thoughts are now with the family.”

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Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon

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