Boston and its suburbs, universities and transit system were on total lockdown Friday as police hunted for marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — on the loose after his accomplice brother was killed in a stunning chain of events that left one cop dead and another injured, officials said.
Authorities were confronting a double-edged nightmare: a ruthless killer at large in a densely populated area after a wild chase and firefights, and the possibility of other bombs planted around the area. An explosive was found in Boston Friday morning and disabled, an official said.
A possible associate of the brothers was also being sought.
Three dozen FBI agents were surrounding the Cambridge, Mass., home where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan grew up after moving to the U.S. a decade ago from overseas.
Across the area, as police cars screamed down streets and helicopters hovered overhead, authorities urged the public to stay inside and keep their doors locked to anyone but law-enforcement officers.
“There is a massive manhunt under way,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said. “We are asking people to shelter in place.”
The lockdown initially affected more than 300,000 people in Cambridge, Watertown, Newton, Brighton, Allston and Belmont, but by 8 a.m., the entire city of Boston was paralyzed, officials said.
Watertown, where the second suspect was last seen, was the epicenter of the search. Frightened residents were trapped in their homes as convoys of heavily armed officers and troops arrived by the hour.
Harvard University, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emerson University were all closed and students were told to stay inside. Boston public schools were shuttered for the day.
The overnight violence began near MIT about five hours after the FBI released surveillance photos of the two men suspected of planting two bombs near the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding 176.
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