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You are here: Home / Breaking News / Report: The Suspects are Brothers: A Friend of Suspect #2 Speaks About the Younger Brother: UPDATE 18

Report: The Suspects are Brothers: A Friend of Suspect #2 Speaks About the Younger Brother: UPDATE 18

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Update 20:

Update 19:

Update 18: Ah there is such agony in all directions. The Uncle of the two brothers has spoken. He seems in shock. He cannot believe what has happened and says the family is crying and weeping. That he received a phone call from the older brother yesterday [before he died, that is] saying that he asked him for forgiveness… but in some difficulty in speaking English, it is not clear about for what. The Uncle said the brothers were not Chechnyan. They are from Kyrgyzstan and have been in the States he thought, about 7 years or so. On camera, the uncle gave the newsperson the address on air of his brother, who may be the father of the two brothers. The news people rushed away then.

The brothers appear to be devotees of Islam, but no one knows which brand of Islam. There is also a sensible idea that it may have been only the two brothers in the main who planned this massacre, for it appears they tried to rob a 7-11… and there is speculation that a well funded terrorist plan would not include knocking over 7-11s.

Eric Makado [sp] friend to Dzhokhar in high school, said they called him “Jakar”.

Update 17: The younger brother has 77 ‘friends’ on his facebook page. No doubt his friends will be contacted, and it will be interesting to note how facebook reveals their email addresses, or not… and what his facebook friends will have to say. Also there is the mysterious owner of the carjacked car, who apparently claims to have been held for 1/2 hour by the two suspects, and then released. Media is reporting that car owner said that the brother admitted they did the bombings at the marathon. Stay tuned to hear about/from him also.

Update 16: It is believed the two brothers came from ‘near’ Chechnya. Authorities believe the older brother, now dead, is age about 26 and named Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The younger brother, age 19 is Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, of Cambridge. It is said they immigrated to the Boston area, now, sometime ago. A heartrending phone call came into CNN from a young articulate man who was a friend in high school to the younger brother. Eric Makado [sp] spoke about how they partied together, went to school together, that their school was filled with people from all over the world and rich in people of many different cultures from Ethiopia and many many other areas of the world. He said all Dzhokhar was involved in sports and when they were friends, he had joy. Dzhokhar’s friends are stunned and stricken, that they never would have believed Dzhokhar would do such a thing. He speculated that the older brother may have corrupted him, and said he himself and other of Dzhokhar’s friends didnt even know he had an older brother. The saddest part was the CNN reporter asked him what he would like to say to Dzhokhar if he might be listening. It was hard to bear, for the young man said essentially, man, we know you, we know you must have been pressured, come in, turn yourself in, and dont make this any worse than it is already, come on in man….

And one wonders if this would have been one strategy to broadcast on tv and radio and cell and twitter, the friend of Dzhokhar asking his friend to come in.

Update 15: It is speculated that the two suspects are brothers who have been in the states under a year. Some news sources are speculating they are from Chechnya, but that is not verified at this time. Journos in investigative media are looking into information about their families, assuming they have the right names and locales.

Update 14: The police are asking people from Newtown, Alston, Cambridge, and several other nearby towns to also not leave home, and not go to work, and to not answer the door unless they can determine for certain it’s a police officer. This hugely expanded area of interest is to create a further containment and observation and investigative area. There are said to be 7,000 officers on the ground in this one locale. The closedown of transportation is said to affect 1.3 million people, and that in a sense, for as long as public transportation is closed down, Boston is essentially shut down as it might be during a huge snowstorm. There is a sidenote that schools, including nearby Harvard, have shut down at least for today also. {Earlier yesterday, a man was arrested, made to strip in the street and was taken into a police car naked. It was explained that the removal of clothing was to make sure the man wasnt wired with explosives in any way. He clearly was not. After interrogation, the man was released. Stay tuned, there are many stories within stories in this huge set of events, and we will no doubt hear more about this man, later.]

Update 13: They just closed down the MBTA by order of the police, all subways and bus service suspended to accompany lockdown. They are saying that people should go back home and not wait for a bus and not go towork unless absolutely necessary. This will likely mean double shifts or sleeping on floors for many currently at the end of night shift, and for those who are in emergency care, such as nursing facilities etc, they may be able to be in touch with previous shift and make arrangements. No traffic allowed, no businesses allowed to open in Watertown. The commissioner of police looks exhausted, but he is speaking strong and clearly that public safety is number one.

There is speculation across the blogosphere and in various news outlets that suspect is hunkered down by breaking into someone’s house, or has carjacked another car and is out of the vicinity, or is outdoors or in a garage or storage area or cellar or store, thereby still in the vicinity.

Update 12: At a news conference about 5:15am EST, from the Boston Beth Israel hospital where suspect #1 was taken after a car chase, doctors revealed the suspect arrived at hospital in cardiac arrest, and had both gunshot wounds, and according to the doctor leading the news conference, also explosive wounds, as though something had exploded around his torso area. Ironically there are still about 12 bombing victims in the same hospital the suspect was taken to. When asked if the docs knew they’d just received one of the suspects, one of the young docs indicated that they seldom know who is coming through ER and that their job as docs is to work fast and to treat everyone equally and do their best to help each person. The docs verified that their patient, suspect #1, has died.

The police in Watertown cleared the streets of car traffic overnight, continuing to the present, not only to surveil aprx 20 square blocks, but to check everywhere for unexploded ordinance thought to have been thrown from the suspects’ highjacked car. Daylight will help on that issue. The police have set up road blocks to stop all vehicles, putting a noose around the neighborhood in an effort to squeeze the suspect out into the open. Officers are going door to door, ordering citizens to “shelter indoors.”

UPDATE 11:

Also to summarize: identities of Suspect I and II have yet to be OFFICIALLY announced. And when you read the reports you’ll see that one of the identifications is now apparently being pulled back. But that could change, too. The reality: until there is an official identification there is no real identification. Second reality: this clearly just isn’t some homegrown group or two twenty-somethings who did a quick bomb operation. This was well-planned and they were well armed.

Update 10: Via NewsBreaker: “BREAKING: NBC’s Pete Williams says marathon bombing suspects came from overseas. Had only been in US for a yr. Both had military background.” And also: “NBC’s Pete Williams: [Deceased first] Bombing suspect exited vehicle in Watertown w/ bomb strapped to his chest, started shooting & rushing police.”

UPDATE 8 & 9: The Massachusetts State Police just gave a press conference saying that Suspect Number 2 with the white hat is on the run and is believed to be “armed and dangerous.” They are telling residents not to open their doors to anyone unless police officers are there. “We believe this to be a terrorist. We believe this is someone who has come here to kill people.” one officer told the press during the briefing.
Middlesex County DA press release confirms death of Suspect Number One (dark hat):
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News reports (as NBC’s Luke Russert noted earlier in Tweets) also suggest the two were likely to have been involved in some robberies of a 7Eleven.

UPDATE 7: The latest: Early reports via Twitter and reporters said one of the suspects is reportedly dead — Mike Mulugeta, the so-called “black hat” suspect, and the “white hat” suspect Sunil Tripathi, was supposedly Brown University student who became the subject of news reports last months when he vanished from his campus, is on the run as of 1:14 a.m. PST. But officials say the suspect on the run is NOT the missing Brown University student (at this writing). Earlier posts:

The Boston Globe reports the arrest of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects p- and most of the news is breaking on Twitter which says now one is dead and one is on the run. Note that so far there has been NO official announcement confirming the official arrest of a Marathon bomber suspect.

UPDATE III: Twitter feeds and are reporting the suspects as Mike Mulugeta Suspect and Sunil Tripathi. Tripathi was the subject of major news stories a month ago when he disappeared off the Brown University campus. GO HERE to read an ABC story at the time. (Officials later said Tripathi was not the suspect on the run.)

UPDATE 6: NBC’s Pete Williams reports that a pressure cooker has been found on the scene.

The Boston Globe:

One suspect in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings has been captured, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation. Another remains on the loose in Watertown after a firefight with police. Authorities have established a 20-block perimeter as they search for him.

A scene of chaos descended on Cambridge and Watertown late Thursday night and early Friday morning, as police confirmed an MIT police officer was shot and killed, and an apparent carjacking led police on a wild chase into Watertown.

Witnesses in Watertown said they heard explosions. Police officers were screaming about improvised explosive devices.

Authorities would not comment on whether the events were connected to Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings. At least one of the suspects in Watertown appeared to be a man in his 20s.

FBI agents were on the scene in Watertown.

Twitter has been ahead on this story all night. Here are some relevant Tweets from Luke Russert’s Twitter account:
Luke Russert ?@LukeRussert 2m

Btw, this all started because these individuals decided to rob a 7/11 in a busy area. #Boston
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Luke Russert ?@LukeRussert 4m
Unconfirmed possible video of shoot out taken by neighbor sounds like 40 shots. https://www.youtube.com/embed/wSlRHJv1nnA …
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Charlie Warzel ?@cwarzel 7m
WHDH has sources saying one suspect is DEAD (shot and killed) and another is on the run http://www1.whdh.com/video/7newslive
Retweeted by Luke Russert
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FBI PressOffice ?@FBIPressOffice 11m
New photos of @FBIBoston suspects on http://fbi.gov http://1.usa.gov/XTW06n
Retweeted by Luke Russert
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Luke Russert ?@LukeRussert 16m
RT: @BostonGlobe: One Marathon bombing suspect has been caught, and another is on the loose in Watertown after a firefight with police
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Luke Russert ?@LukeRussert 21m
RT: @JNSmall: A testament to how big this man hunt is: a K-9 unit from Billerica -18 miles north- just came thru #boston #manhunt
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Jennifer Peter ?@GlobeJenPeter 24m
A marathon suspect is in custody as manhunt continues for another in Watertown, according to official with knowledge of the investigation.
Retweeted by Luke Russert
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Luke Russert ?@LukeRussert 25m
Yowza. RT: @nytimes: Explosives Detonated in Massachusetts Standoff http://nyti.ms/103lHLO
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Luke Russert ?@LukeRussert 33m
RT: @BostonGlobe: Watertown resident says he was awakened by a huge boom just before 1 a.m. http://b.globe.com/177a4tz
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UPDATE,2: 11:52 pm PST: The Twitter account NewsBreaker has been way out in front on these developments all night. Here are some of their recent Tweets as of this writing:

NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 1m
BREAKING VIDEO: Believed to be the shootout between police & Watertown suspects in Massachusetts – YouTube: Jess Ica http://bit.ly/11jQmsv
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 2m
BREAKING: MSNBC: Federal officials in Washington being “rallied” to get involved in what’s going on in Watertown
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 3m

BREAKING: Scanner – “suspect that is still outstanding is the suspect with the white hat that was identified in the photos.” – @onthemedia
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 8m
BREAKING: Scanner: “The white male should be considered armed and dangers. Possibly with explosives and an assault rifle.” @BuzzFeedAndrew
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 10m
BREAKING: Police boats in Charles River. Heading toward Watertown. Police urging people to stay inside – @JHall7news
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 13m

BREAKING: Mass State Police: Multiple explosive devices used against police tonight in Watertown
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 14m

BREAKING: State Police spox: 2 suspects have been “accounted for” in Watertown scene; don’t know how many there are in all – @jessbidgood
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 18m

BREAKING: WHDH TV has sources saying one suspect is DEAD (shot and killed) and another is on the run – @cwarzel http://www1.whdh.com/video/7newslive
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 22m
DEVELOPING: @vwarrenon7: Just saw several FBI armed with rifles guarding federal buildings in Boston, precautionary measure
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 25m

BREAKING: Official: Marathon bombing suspect in custody, another remains on the loose – @BostonGlobe http://b.globe.com/17K9a7D
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 27m
BREAKING: New photos released of #Boston bombing suspect. Photos here: http://1.usa.gov/12krwtw – @NewYorkFBI
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 28m
BREAKING PHOTO: “Bullet hole through our wall and the chair” – @akitz #mitshooting #mit #boston pic.twitter.com/XKc3CNf78T
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 29m
BREAKING: @BostonGlobe: 1 Marathon bombing suspect caught; another on the loose in Watertown after firefight w/ police, officials said.
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 30m
BREAKING: @GlobeJenPeter: A marathon suspect in custody as manhunt continues for another in Watertown, per official
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UPDATE 4: More via NewsBreaker’s Twitter feed:

Breaker ?@NewsBreaker 3m
BREAKING: NBC’s Pete Williams: “It sure looks like to me it’s connected” to Boston marathon bombings
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 3m
BREAKING: NBC’s Pete Williams says pressure cooker was found at scene in Watertown by police
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 4m
BREAKING: NBC’s Pete Williams on MSNBC says there is ample reason to think this is connected to the Boston Marathon bombing
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 7m
BREAKING: Scanner: Watertown PD in foot pursuit of suspect near Cypress & Dexter. ONLY SWAT units being assigned to back them up – @garytx
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 8m
BREAKING: Scanner: Police are in a foot pursuit chasing someone, calling for backup
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NewsBreaker ?@NewsBreaker 11m
BREAKING: @7News Steve Cooper: According to law enforcement source: The 2 suspects are the #BostonMarathon suspects the FBI are looking for
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UPDATE 5: The FBI has released this new photo of the two suspects together in the same shot:
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breaking news graphic via shutterstock.com