Boston Marathon Bombings Update: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, second bombing suspect, captured alive in backyard boat

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

PICTURES: Boston bombing victimsPICTURES: Boston Marathon bombing suspects

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

Timeline of events in the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects

Tsarnaev's brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, was killed early Friday in a furious attempt to escape police.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been hiding in a boat in a neighborhood 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.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted, "We got him."

During a long night of violence Thursday into Friday, the brothers killed a police officer, severely wounded another officer and hurled explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle, authorities said.

The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 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.

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, including a student from China, 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 and have said it is unclear whether it was the work of domestic or international terrorists.

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.

Complete coverage of Boston Marathon bombings on Crimesider