The Boston Marathon bombing suspect and alleged cop-killer, who held Greater Boston in fear and under lockdown yesterday as thousands of cops swarmed the unsuspecting suburb of Watertown, was weak and clinging to life when authorities plucked him from the boat where he’d been cowering in a backyard, police said.
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“He had lost a lot of blood. He was so weak that we were able to just go in and scoop him up,” said state police spokesman David Procopio, adding that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in “serious if not critical condition.”
Tsarnaev, 19, was taken alive last night after a Watertown homeowner spotted him in the bloodied boat.
“We’re exhausted, folks, but we have a victory here tonight,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben told the public. “We are eternally grateful for the outcome tonight. We have a suspect in custody.”
News of Tsarnaev’s capture sent a surge of bittersweet relief to the heartbroken families of the three killed and the more than 170 other victims of Monday’s bombing.
“He was a snake, wiggling through the ground, and I was afraid he got away,” said Lillian Campbell, 79, of Somerville, whose granddaughter, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, was killed at the finish line. “But now I can go on with my life. I just pray tonight everything works out OK because so many people got hurt. Not just Krystle. There’s so many more. There’s enough heartache.”
“None of this will bring our beloved Martin back, or reverse the injuries these men inflicted on our family and nearly 200 others,” the family of 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester said in a statement. “We continue to pray for healing and for comfort on the long road that lies ahead for every victim and their loved ones. Tonight, our family applauds the entire law enforcement community for a job well done, and trust that our justice system will now do its job.”
At Copley Square, steps from the fatal explosions, the welcome news sent a small crowd streaming out of brownstones and high rises to gather, reflect and hold hands.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino tweeted “your mayor is proud of you” to Hub cops who helped hunt down Tsarnaev. Then he tweeted “we got him.”
On Brookline Avenue, near Beth Israel Hospital, where many victims were treated, more than 1,000 Simmons and Emmanuel College students chanted “USA,” waving American flags and loudly cheering each passing police car.
“It’s a huge sigh of relief,” said Sheila Drakeley, 19, an Emmanuel sophomore who got caught between both bomb blasts after stopping by the finish line. “It’s great to see everyone smiling again.”
President Obama said the capture closes “an important chapter in this tragedy. The suspects failed because the people of Boston refused to be intimidated.”
Collaring Tsarnaev gave authorities a hard-earned triumph after a bloody spree that started Thursday night with the shooting death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus cop Sean Collier, 26. Minutes later, police received a report of a carjacking and chased the vehicle into Watertown, where they say Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, 26, got into a furious firefight with cops, tossing explosives at them and critically wounding MBTA cop Richard Donohue, 33.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed. His younger brother Dzhokhar fled, leading authorities to launch an unprecedented daylong manhunt, conducting house-to-house searches over more than 20 square blocks in Watertown, ordering the MBTA to shut down and telling residents of that city, Boston and neighboring communities to stay hunkered down in their homes in fear the alleged madman could be anywhere.
The death of one bombing suspect and the dramatic capture of another now allows the feds to focus on whether the suspects worked alone.
Special Agent In Charge Richard DesLauriers said Thursday the brothers Tsarnaev were the only “people of interest to the FBI” at this time.
While no other suspects have been named, the brothers’ arsenal of explosive devices — along with a surveillance image of the younger one speaking on a telephone moments before the bomb blasts, and the feds hauling in three of his University of Massachusetts Dartmouth classmates last night in New Bedford — raises questions as to whether more monsters helped carry out the attacks.
New Bedford police Sgt. Kelly Botelho confirmed that officers took three men into custody and brought them to UMass Dartmouth for questioning by federal authorities. Botelho said he could not confirm whether the three men were related to the bombing investigation, but one of the suspects, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was a student there.
“It’s always possible that there are associates — somebody helping them buy material, somebody who had property where they could go and test fire,” said Larry Johnson, a former deputy director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism. “The preparation of the devices — that entire process required probably at least one other person to acquire materials and get it properly prepared.”
Terrorism analyst John Pike of Globalsecurity.org said investigators are likely poring over the brothers’ phone and financial records to see with whom they’re communicating, where they’re shopping for possible supplies — and whether any other known terror associates made purchases there, too.
“They’re going to look at telephone records. That’s a really good place to start. That generates a lot of leads quickly,” Pike said. “They’re going to go and talk to people. … There’s unlimited overtime for police to investigate this thing.”
Richard Weir contributed to this story.