Cops found Dzhokar Tsarnaev conscious and alive - and bleeding from a gunshot from a shootout with police the night beforePolice caught the second Boston Marathon bomber alive early this morning after
Dzhokar Tsarnaev was arrested around 2am UK time after he was cornered by heavily armed police and Swat teams in an outlying suburb.
His brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, had been gunned down yesterday in a firefight in the middle of the street in broad daylight.
At least 20 shots were fired in a gun battle between police and 19-year-old Dzhokar as he hid in a boat in the backyard at a house in Watertown.
The area had been under “police lockdown” for 24 hours but, within minutes of that being lifted, Swat teams and armoured vehicles raced to 67 Franklin Street.
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The alarm was raised after blood was spotted from the boat, suggesting Dzhokar had been wounded in the earlier gunfight in which his brother died.
Nearly an hour later the sounds of “pops and bangs” rang out as police fired flash-bang stun grenades towards the college student.
Helicopter infra-red scanners spotted a body hiding under the tarpaulin of a boat in the backyard of the house.
Neighbour Barbara Young said: “Everything was blocked off. An FBI agent told me he was hiding in a boat.
"The gunman was shooting at the cops. That’s where the shots were coming from.”
A convoy of more than 50 police vehicles, containing hundreds of officers converged on the suburb.
A firefight between Dzhokar and police teams broke out with one woman reporting hearing up to 25 gunshots.
Police told people nearby to stay on the ground while bullets were flying. Snipers were placed on a rooftop as the net closed around the suspect.
At 2am UK time police officers clapped and crowds cheered as an alive and conscious Dzhokar was taken in to custody and rushed to hospital.
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The Boston Police Twitter account summed up the relief with the message: "CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody."
The breakthrough, at 7pm local time, came nearly 24 hours after Tamerlan was killed following an intense firefight.
Millions of petrified residents locked themselves inside homes and businesses while schools and shops were closed.
Meanwhile 9,000 heavily armed personnel hunted down the Chechen brothers whose rucksack bombs killed three people, through eerily quiet districts.
Tamerlan was killed in a gunfight after he tried to blow up officers who had tracked down an SUV the pair had carjacked.
200 rounds and explosives were used in the firefight with police.
But Dzhokar managed to flee, leaving behind him a trail of destruction that included one dead policeman and another seriously hurt.
As the hunt for him intensified, officers cordoned off a 20 block area in the city’s Watertown district and surrounded a house. Several frightened neighbours were escorted away as officers ordered them out with loud hailers.
Earlier Andrew Kitzenberg, who lives near the scene of the first shootout, told how he saw the two terrorists firing at police in a battle heard by locals who peered out from behind their curtains to catch a glimpse of the drama unfolding.
He also said one of the brothers hurled what looked like a pressure-cooker bomb – the type of device used in the marathon explosion that killed three people and left 178 hurt at the finish on Monday.
Andrew said the pair fired at six police cars 70 or 80 yards away.
He added: “There was a long exchange of gunfire. I saw them light this bomb. They threw it towards the officers.
There was smoke that covered our entire street.”
At that point Tamerlan decided to rush the officers but was gunned down.
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In his desperation to get away Dzhokar – said to be an engineering student – jumped into the stolen car and reversed over his dead brother.
He forced his way through police lines and screeched away.
As dawn broke over the shocked city, police chiefs ordered everyone to stay indoors and warned against approaching Dzhokar, who was said to be “armed and extremely dangerous”.
Buses, trains and taxis were temporarily shut down and flights were halted.
With police in combat gear brandishing a frightening display of weaponry, the streets of one of America’s biggest cities were turned into a virtual war zone.
The chaotic sequence of events that led to Tamerlan’s death and the search for his brother began after the FBI released photos and videos of the pair at the scene of the bombing.
They were immediately inundated with calls from the public and agents said publishing the pictures spooked the two killers who had been lying low.
Just six hours later, a rookie policeman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 26-year-old Sean Collier, was found dead in his vehicle.
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He had multiple gunshot wounds and had not had time to pull out his weapon.
There were claims the officer came across the brothers after being called out to a robbery at a corner store.
Police then received reports of the armed carjacking of the black Mercedes SUV in the nearby suburb of Cambridge.
Scores of squad cars rushed to the scene to find the vehicle.
But after being held at gunpoint for 30 tense minutes by the brothers, the victim was released unhurt and dropped off at a petrol station.
Police quickly found the SUV and the gun drama began.
Grocer Jim Steinman said: “Everything is shut. But what is more important – a few bucks in your till or your life?
“It must have cost the city millions of dollars in lost revenue but we just pray no one else is killed in this tragedy.”
Bomb victim Jeff Bauman, whose lower legs were blown off in the attack, helped identify Tamerlan when he woke up in hospital after surgery.
His brother Chris said the 27-year-old had looked into the eyes of the terrorist who tried to kill him.
He saw a man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt drop a bag at his feet.
Chris added: “He woke up in hospital under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘Bag, saw the guy, looked right at me’.”
Police and FBI agents also searched the New York home of a sister of the maniac bombers in a bid to find out more about them.
She has not been named.
The woman said she was sorry for the families who lost loved ones but insisted she “didn’t know what had got into her two brothers”.
