BREAKING NEWS: Boston bombings suspect in police custody.

BREAKING:

One of the Boston bombing suspects is dead, and his brother is alive in police custody

19-year-old Dzhokar Tsarnaev was surrounded by police while hiding in a boat in a backyard in Watertown, Boston. Police used a robot to probe the scene, and thermal imaging to determine that the suspect was alive.

The Washington Post reported that police on the scene were cheering and smiling after the suspect was captured.

The Boston Police Department tweeted, “CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.”

President Obama delivered a press conference soon after the arrest, assuring the public that the government  would ‘determine how this happened’ and ‘investigate any associations that these terrorists may have had’.

He also warned against rushing to judgements about entire groups of people – an apparent reference to reports that say the suspects are Muslim – and asked Americans to honour the three people who died in the Boston bombings, as well as the police officer who was killed on Thursday in a suspected related attack.

Obama also said to victims of this week’s fertiliser plant explosion in West, Texas, “I want them to know that they are not forgotten.”

Here’s what happened overnight:

– The suspect, along with the deceased ‘Suspect 1’, is believed to be responsible for death of three and the injuries of 180 others in the marathon bombings. They have been named as two brothers from Chechnya, a known centre of terrorism. Remember the shocking Beslan school incident? The Russian theatre attack? Both were carried out by Chechnyan terrorists.

– The two suspects have been in the US for more than a decade.

– A police officer was shot dead in an incident at Boston’s well known MIT university yesterday. This is said to be connected to the bombing suspects. They reportedly robbed a 7Eleven store and shot dead the 26-year-old security guard who responded to the call. That security guard has been named as Sean Collier.

– A late night police chase started with the suspects hijacked a car and drove it through the streets of Watertown. The chase left one bomber (Suspect Number 1, Tamerlan Tsarnaev) dead, reportedly killed in a shootout with police who say the suspects threw a grenade and five pipe bombs from their moving car. Some reports have claimed the suspect who was driving actually ran over his brother and killed him in the confusion. CNN has reported that: “Tamerlan Tsarnaev was wearing explosives and a triggering device when he died.”

– Suspect Number 2, 19-year-old Dzhokar Tsarnaev, is still on the run. He reportedly drove the hijacked SUV through police to escape.

In a press conference this morning, the Boston police chief said police have gone door to door in the suburb of Watertown looking for the suspect. “We do not have an apprehension….but we will.”

The Governor of Boston reportedly said people are allowed to leave their homes but need to “remain vigilant”.

“There is still a very very dangerous individual at large,” he said.

Friends of Dzhokar have said they never noticed ‘any malicious behaviour’ and his uncle has urged the Dzhokar to turn himself in, saying his family is “ashamed’ to be related to the brothers. “Yes, I am ashamed,” he told the press. “The are children of my brother.”

“I say what I think was behind it – being losers. Not being able to settle themselves. And thereby just hating everyone who did,” he said.

“I say Dzhokar, if you’re alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness – from the victims and from the injured.”

The mother of the suspects say s FBI had been following her older son for three years, but denies his involvement. This from CNN:

“It’s impossible for them to do such things. I am really telling you that this is a setup,” Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told state-run Russia Today from Dagestan.

“My son would never keep it in secret. …If there is anyone who would know it would be me. He wouldn’t hide it. But there was never a word.”

The brothers came from the Russian Caucasus region and moved to Kazakhstan at a young age before coming to the United States several years ago.

“My youngest was raised from 8 years in America. My oldest was really properly raised in our house. Nobody talked about terrorism,” their mother said.

The suspects’ parents recently returned to Dagestan in the Caucasus region after living in the United States for about 10 years because they were “nostalgic,” the father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told Russian state-run Zvezda TV.

The father of the suspects, says he believes in his sons’ innocence. Speaking to the media in Russia, he said: “I have confidence in my children. I have 100 per cent, million per cent confidence in them.”

Editor’s note:  The post is here to give you a general run down of what’s happened in Boston while you were sleeping.  Unfortunately we’re not able to give you a minute-by-minute update (we’ll leave that to CNN!)