Watch CBS News

Boston Marathon bomb suspect in custody after standoff

Updated 11:00 p.m. ET

WATERTOWN, Mass. A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt and intense standoff that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead.

Police announced via Twitter that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in custody. They later tweeted, "CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody."

Tsarnaev's brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, was killed early Friday in a furious attempt to escape police. Tsarnaev himself was in serious condition when he was apprehended, with gunshot wounds to his leg and neck, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports. He has been transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for treatment. Several officials expressed relief that Tsarnaev was captured alive.

Dzokhar Tsarnaev lies on the ground after being detained by federal agents on Friday, April 19, 2013
Dzokhar Tsarnaev lies on the ground after being detained by federal agents on Friday, April 19, 2013. CBS News

Col. Timothy Alben with the Massachusetts State Police said at a news conference after the arrest: "We are eternally grateful for the outcome here tonight. We're exhausted folks."

An undated view of the boat in which Dzhokar Tsarnaev was believed to be hiding. Bing

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been hiding in a boat in a neighborhood that had been on lockdown near Boston. The crowd gathered near the scene let out a cheer when spectators saw officers clapping.

"Everyone wants him alive," said Kathleen Paolillo, a 27-year-old teacher who lives in the area.

Miller reports a Watertown man who had been observing the lockdown came out for the first time late Friday and saw a tear in the tarp that covers his boat. He climbed up and looked inside. What he said in a later 911 call was "there's a bloody mess in there."

Three Boston police officers responded and they climbed up and looked in there and they said they saw somebody moving. They backed away and called for tactical teams.

They said something popped up out of the tear in the tarp and opened fire and they returned fire. The incident commander then called for a ceasefire so they could set up a perimeter.

The FBI's hostage rescue team arrived and took tactical control of that scene.

Bomb techs cleared a path to the boat to make sure it wasn't a booby trapped.

Boston Police Chief Edward Davis said they attempted to talk Tsarnaev out of the boat, but did not succeed.

The FBI hostage rescue teams made an entry to the boat, were able to observe the suspect still moving and pull him out. They confirmed he was wounded and there was a lot of blood, but said the wound appeared to have occurred earlier.

A Department of Justice official told CBS News no Miranda warning was given to Tsarnaev because government is invoking the public safety exception.

During a long night of violence Thursday into Friday, the brothers killed an MIT police officer and carjacked a passing vehicle before leading authorities on a dramatic chase during which they hurled explosives at law enforcement vehicles in pursuit. An intense gun battle ensued, leaving another officer severely wounded. In the course of the firefight, Tamerlan threw a pressure cooker bomb - the same as were used in Monday's twin bombings, though this one malfunctioned when the lid came off - at police before being gunned down. Younger brother Dzhokhar, believed injured in the gunfire, managed to flee the scene and elude police for another 20 hours.

The brothers were identified as ethnic Chechen brothers who had lived in the Dagestan region in southern Russia. They had been in the U.S. for about a decade, an uncle said. Dzhokhar had been a student at UMass-Dartmouth.

Their uncle in Maryland, Ruslan Tsarni, pleaded on live television Friday: "Dzhokhar, if you are alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness."

Authorities in Boston suspended all mass transit and warned close to 1 million people in the city and some of its suburbs to stay indoors as the hunt went on.

"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."

The bombings on Monday killed three people - 8-year-old Martin Richard, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell and 23-year-old Chinese student Lu Lingzi - and wounded more than 180, instantly raising the specter of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Investigators in the Boston case have shed no light on the motive for the bombing. However, a search of the apartment of one of the suspects revealed extensive bomb making material, enough so that some officials called it a "bomb making factory." CBS News correspondent John Miller reports it is likely the Boston Marathon was just a beginning salvo in a larger plan.

FBI image of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev with updated "captured" status after he was apprehended in Watertown, Mass., April 19, 2013.

State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said police realized they were dealing with the bombing suspects based on what the two men told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt overnight.

Shortly before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's capture, the White House said President Barack Obama has spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the investigation.

Obama "praised the close cooperation that the United States has received from Russia on counter-terrorism, including in the wake of the Boston attack," the White House said in a statement.

After Tsarnaev's capture, President Obama said the arrest of the surviving suspect closes "an important chapter in this tragedy."

The president said there are still many unanswered questions about the bombings, including whether the two men had help from others. He is urging the public to not rush to judgment about their motivations.

Updated timeline / map of pursuit of Boston bombing suspect CBSNews/Stamen
View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.