Timeline of Boston bombings manhunt
Posted Apr 19, 2013 7:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Based on reports from the Middlesex County district attorney, Massachusetts State Police and Boston police. (All times are in EST)
Thursday
5:10 p.m.: Investigators of the bombings release photographs and video of two suspects. They ask for the public’s help in identifying the men.
10:20 p.m.: Shots are fired on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, just outside Boston.
10:30 p.m.: An MIT campus police officer who was responding to a disturbance is found shot multiple times in his vehicle, apparently in a confrontation with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. He is later pronounced dead.
Shortly afterward, two armed men reportedly carjack a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge. A man who was in the vehicle is held for about a half hour and then released unharmed at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Police soon pursue the carjacked vehicle in Watertown, just west of Cambridge. Some kind of explosive devices are thrown from the vehicle in an apparent attempt to stop police. The carjackers and police exchange gunfire. A transit police officer is seriously injured. One suspect, later identified as Suspect No. 1 in the marathon bombings, is critically injured and later pronounced dead.
Authorities launch a manhunt for the other suspect.
Friday
1a.m.: Gunshots and explosions are heard in Watertown. Dozens of police officers and FBI agents converge on a Watertown neighbourhood. A helicopter circles overhead.
4:30 a.m.: Massachusetts state and Boston police tell people living in that section of eastern Watertown to stay in their homes. They identify the carjackers as the same men suspected in the marathon bombings. Overnight, police also release a photograph of a man believed to be Suspect No. 2 wearing a grey hoodie-style sweatshirt. The image apparently was taken from surveillance video at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Cambridge. Authorities initially say the suspects robbed the store but later say they did not.
5:50a.m.: Authorities urge residents in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge, Arlington and the Allston-Brighton neighbourhoods of Boston to stay indoors. All mass transit is shut down.
6:35a.m.: The Associated Press reports that the bomb suspects are from a Russian region near Chechnya and lived in the United States for at least a year.
6:45 a.m.: The surviving Boston bomb suspect is identified as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, who has been living in Cambridge.
8 a.m.: Boston’s police commissioner says all of Boston must stay in their homes as the search for the surviving suspect in the bombings continues.
8:40 a.m.: A U.S. law enforcement official and the uncle of the suspects confirm that the name of the slain suspect is Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s older brother.
10:20 a.m.: Connecticut State Police say a grey Honda CRV believed to be linked to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been recovered in Boston.
10:35 a.m.: The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth says it closed its campus and ordered an evacuation after confirming that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is registered there. The school says it closed the campus “out of an abundance of caution” as the search continued.
11:30 a.m.: Massachusetts State Police explain that the brothers suspected in the bombings were in the Honda CRV when they carjacked the Mercedes SUV. For a while, each drove one of the two vehicles, but then ditched the Honda and reunited in the Mercedes.
12:35 p.m.: State police in Watertown say officers are searching door-to-door but still have not found the bombing suspect.
Approximately 3:20 p.m. Friday: The NHL and MLB postpone games in Boston.
Approximately 6:10 p.m. Friday: Boston police say the suspect at large has not been apprehended. The stay indoors order is lifted but Gov. Deval Patrick urges residents to remain vigilant.
6:55 p.m. Friday: Police cruisers seen rushing to a scene in Watertown. Numerous gunshots heard.
7:15 p.m. Friday: CNN confirms police have cornered suspect number 2 inside a boat in a home’s backyard.
8:15 p.m. Friday: Police remain at the scene. Some reports tear gas has been fired. Other reports state the boat is on fire.
8:33 p.m. Friday: Three people are taken into custody in New Bedford as part of terror investigation.
8:44 p.m. Friday: Police scanners in Boston signal suspect may have been taken into custody.
Shortly after 8:45 p.m. Friday: Over Twitter, Boston Police confirm Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been taken into custody, and must also be treated for unspecified medical needs.
