UPDATE: 10:56 am Reporters at the scene have been told to get down on the ground. "Suspect has something in his right hand, possible deadman switch, wearing a vest" - scanner report on Twitter.
UPDATE: NBC News is reporting that police are in a standoff with one of the suspects.
UPDATE: Police have taken two people into custody from the home of the two brothers. They are not under arrest. There are news reports that police are looking for another suspect.
The bombing suspects have been identified as Tamerlan Tsanaev, 26, and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, Russian immigrants. At least one brother was born in Kyrgyzstan. After a wild night including holding up a Cambridge 7-Eleven, killing one M.I.T. police officer and critically wounding another, hijacking an SUV and throwing explosive devices in their path, Tamerlan is dead and Dzokhar is on the loose. The entire city has been ordered to shelter in place.
"We believe this is a terrorist, we believe he came here to kill people." police said in an early-morning press conference:
A violent crime spree across Greater Boston that took the lives of a campus police officer and one of the suspects in the Marathon bombings morphed into a desperate door-to-door search for a man believed to be the second bomber in Monday’s dual blasts.
After a string of explosions and volleys of gunfire that seriously injured a transit officer, police cordoned off much of Watertown, Mass. Residents were ordered to “shelter in place” and not trust anyone they might see other than uniformed officers.
A Massachusetts State Police public information officer told HuffPost reporter Michael McLaughlin, "We believe this to be a terrorist, we believe he came here to kill people."
At daybreak, law enforcement planned to launch a house-to house search through much of Watertown as they sought one half of the duo believed to have killed three and wounded more than 170 at the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday.
A chaotic Thursday night across Cambridge and Watertown started at 10:30 p.m. with a convenience store holdup that led to the shooting of an MIT campus officer who died later from multiple gunshot wounds.
Police sped away from the campus crime scene amid reports of an armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV nearby.
The breakneck pursuit of the stolen car led to Watertown, where suspects detonated explosives in the direction of officers before exchanging gunfire.
“I heard three loud bangs,” a witness told HuffPost. “It sounded like a car being dropped on the ground.”
The threat to anyone in the area was so serious that the police planned robocalls to warn residents, CNN reported.
Hundreds of officers drawn from many departments spent hours looking for additional explosives, criminal evidence and, perhaps most importantly, a man deemed to be armed and dangerous.
One suspect died in the exchange of gunfire with police in Watertown. Neither suspects' identity was released.
Via the Atlantic Wire:
The City of Cambridge awarded "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev" a $2,500 scholarship in 2011,according to Boston.com report. "The city is awarding the $2,500 scholarships to 45 students using contributions from citizens and businesses. About 35 to 45 scholarships are awarded each year, according to the city," reported Boston.com's Brock Parker.
Tsarnaev was a senior at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School then. This time frame would make sense if the AP is reporting that Tsarnaev was in the U.S. for at least a year.
