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Gunfire, explosions in Watertown as Marathon suspects try to shoot way out of police chase

Marathon suspects: One dead, one on the run.

Marathon suspects: One dead, one on the run.

Photos from the gun battle.

A gun battle in a quiet area of Watertown tonight left one of two suspects dead, a police officer critically injured and residents being told to lock their doors and stay away from the fronts of their homes.

At 4 a.m., Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis tweeted:

One suspect dead. One at large. Armed and dangerous. White hat suspect at large.

State Police linked the two to an armed robbery of a 7-Eleven in Central Square, the murder of an MIT police officer and a carjacking that ended in East Watertown with a gun battle between the two men and Watertown and MBTA police.

White Hat Guy in Central Square 7-Eleven last night.
White Hat Guy in Central Square 7-Eleven last night.

State Police said the suspects began tossing explosives at police in addition to shooting at them. One MBTA officer, Richard H. Donohue, received critical injuries and was rushed to Mt. Auburn Hospital.

Dexter Avenue. Photo by Jay Gates.
Dexter Avenue. Photo by Jay Gates.

Police from Boston, Cambridge and Newton rushed to the area north of the Watertown Mall when Watertown Police issued an urgent plea for help. They were quickly joined by FBI and ATF agents and State Police. Davis rushed to the scene as well.

Police say that after pumping several bullets into the MIT officer at the Stata Center, the two carjacked a Mercedes SUV and headed outbound on Memorial Drive - they stopped at a gas station to let the SUV's owner out.

One of the suspects, the Black Hat Guy, was nabbed by police after the gun battle, with serious injuries of his own. He was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from multiple trauma, including from what appeared to be an explosive device - police said he had one strapped to his chest.

The second suspect took off on foot and police said he was armed with both an assault rifle and either grenades or IEDs.

Residents of the area were warned to lock their doors and stay away from the fronts of their houses. Police prepared to evacuate some residents due to the presence of explosives, some of which bomb squads planned to explode on purpose.

Jay Gates reports:

It woke my wife up, she woke me up. We then heard a few vehicles screaming down our street. We're on Cypress, which is parallel to Laurel, where Ch 7 reported as the location of the shootout.

During this, my upstairs neighbor was standing at the end of our driveway, just watching everything. I yelled at him to get inside, Several officers ran towards him, guns drawn and made him put his hands up, and I didn't see what happened after that, I ran out of the room!

At 1:01 a.m., Jamie Erdahl at NESN tweeted:

We are on LOCKDOWN, commanded to us by police, at the NESN television center in Watertown. Heard 3 loud booms.

A big part of Watertown was locked down this morning.
A big part of Watertown was locked down this morning. Photo by Brian Riccio.

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Comments

This is truly terrifying.

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VERY near all this. I did not hear any explosions, but did wake up to some kind of authority presence sweeping up the street and searching EVERYWHRE. I can hear a helicopter circling around outside. I am simultaneously freaking out and feeling very reassured at the police/ATF/SWAT/whatever they are presence.

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I was wondering if they had the helicopters out. A few weeks ago, helicopters helped catch someone who had shot at police here in Somerville, so that's maybe a sign that they can get this under control.

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This post and Adam were just mentioned on the John Batchelor radio show (carried on 630-AM Providence)

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WHDH's Adam Williams

Reporter of the year. He's been on the phone covering this scene the entire time. Gunshots rang out and he ducked behind a car for cover. Then police started yelling get back get back due to the suspect having an alleged hand grenade. You could hear the sheer terror in his voice as he ran 2 blocks.

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Strong wor. Scooping both the major dailies.
Well done. It's reassuring to get information from a trusted source so promptly.

Hoping no one else is hurt at this point

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I am in bed like 5 blocks from the Watertown scene and just heard another boom at about 1:35am.

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Maybe a controlled explosion?

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Army EOD is looking for unexploded IEDs and getting rid of them ASAP.

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2 suspects in custody. FBI, ATF and Boston Police taking over the scene in Watertown.

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WHDH is now reporting that one suspect who was shot is dead, the second was never caught and is still on the run. 2:34am.

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It's the marathon suspects, one dead. Other still on the loose.

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Every current BPD officer eats and drinks for free from this day forward.

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I wonder why the suspects robbed a 7-11? When they had the 4:30a press conference from Watertown, the State Police Colonel was somewhat vague, but it was Commissioner Davis who said for what I thought was a first from law enforcement (at least from what I've heard), was that these individuals were indeed "terrorists."

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We live on the edge of watertown and I was woken around 1:30 by the sound of explosions and automatic gunfire. Found this website while trying to find out what was going on but, even before news reports started coming in, it was pretty clear the bombing suspects endgame was playing out a few blocks away. Whole thing began at MIT a block from Kendal Sq and ended a couple of blocks away -they essentially fled along our daily commute route! Still hearing sirens. One still on the loose - great!

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Latest coming in on the scanner, suspect seen at Trapelo road in Waltham.

Also, all T service shut down including commuter rail.

I hope they get this one alive, but that doesn't seem to be their intention.

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All I need to see is the prosecutions case against them. I don't give a fuck why they did it.

RIP to the MIT hero, and pulling for the Transit cop. Pete hasn't been around, I'm sure he's been busy too, and would like to thank him for his service.

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Who these guys are and if there's more of them. But they seem to want to go down in flames and prevent that.

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I awakened to read CNN's report which seems totally delusional in comparison. They are suggesting the MIT shooting was unrelated, perpetrated by a "Hispanic male" (tea party racists in Arizona will love that one), have a whole section claiming the dead suspect was elaborately strip searched prior to arrest (maybe, maybe not?) and include choice statements for the Alex Jones set like "Police requested that people in the area turn off their cell phones." No mention of the 7-11 holdup. The actual details of this were fairly straightforward. We live here and there are local eyewitnesses. What a crappy network, I'll never trust a thing they tell us again.

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Suspicious character trying to hitchhike out on the Mass Pike at beacon yard.

Not a good day to pick someone up.

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MY WIFE heard the explosions and gunfire, we have both been up ever since watching news reports. We are safe indoors and staying put. Now going to try to nap intermittently, as the excitement allows.

Edit: Forgot to report we received a "reverse 911" call around 3 or so, telling us to stay indoors and not to answer door for anyone other than a clearly marked and identified police officer.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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This map has lost all credibility with locations nearToronto now

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https://twitter.com/YourAnonNews

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BINNQohCEAAv_gk.jpg:large)

And a little humor to break the tension:

#Watertown: Overheard on police scanner: "They call me Kevin "in-and-out real quick" Brennan", other officer, "in and out, hu?"

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AP is reporting that the suspects are Russian Chechnya.

The surviving Boston marathon bombing suspect has been identified as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass, according to the Associated Press. The other suspect is dead. They hailed from the Russia region near Chechnya, and lived in United States for at least one year.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/ap-sur...

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some interesting questions;

1. what was the reason they are suspects?
2. why did they suddenly rob a 711, was the po hot on their heels or sth??
3. is there anything known about their origins? (americans?)

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BPD:

BPD: For residents in the area of Comm and Charlesgate, police will be conducting a controlled detonation.

Sounds like these fucks were planning an April 19th encore.

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Another is that this one failed to go off as planned on the day of.

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Charlesgate and Commonwealth is right across the Charles from MIT and where they stole the car, so it seems like they were coming from that direction already. If they didn't intend an encore, then sticking around Boston after such an event seems like a dumb idea. If they can jack cars, they could've gone to another state and then traded cars to get across the country.

WGBH is saying they live in Union Square and that a woman was dragged out of their apartment in cuffs.

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But I saw one report that said they threw another pressure cooker bomb out the window at pursuing officers, but it failed to detonate. No idea if it was across the river, or if they ended up over near Kenmore.

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Woman and baby removed peacefully, for their own safety, out of the building the suspects lived it.

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I live on Comm and Charlesgate. This does not appear to be true. Still plenty of traffic and no police presence at Comm and Charlesgate.

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Hopefully that means they have him pinned and are figuring out the best course of action. Maybe here: From twitter:

https://twitter.com/shawna_england/status/32518810...

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BINM28bCUAEKYxR.jpg:medium)

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Channel 7 reports. Also says Taxi Service has been suspended, so all 3 taxis were sent back to dispatch...

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Some 10 to 12 SWAT team members are now on our street, mostly in camo fatigues, some in black, an armored vehicle, going door-to-door, S-L-O-W-L-Y, searching every house, yard, garage, and wherever else they want because when you have the cannons they're carrying nobody's going to tell you "No, please don't go in there."

Honestly, I'm glad they've made the sweep here. That means there's a good probability the suspect is NOT here, and now I can truly get some sleep.

I won't soon forget the sight of two smiling men with machine guns on our front porch.

(They were smiling, yes. They were obviously trying very hard to keep folks as calm as possible.)

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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^

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Same here. My backdoor was unlocked (I had no idea, but I didn't lock it days ago, from the last time I remember using that door) so they very politely came in and searched my house/basement. Totally lovely and very professional and thorough. One of them even stopped to pet my cat (I was holding him so he wouldn't run into the basement)! I did feel really good about them leaving no stone unturned.

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Watching all day and it gets more weird. How extensive was the search. Did they have papers?
One kid shut down one of the biggest cities in USA

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Tweets from wbz indicate at least the younger brother is a Cambridge ridge and Latin grad described as an otherwise normal, popular and athletic kid. Something snapped. Uncle not sympathetic over death of older brother.

They lived on Norfolk st in Cambridge.

Caveat - twitter sourced!

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Somethings going on. Officers at scene of car running forward.

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Suspect sighted, officers in pursuit...

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