One Boston Marathon bombing suspect shot dead, second on the run: Police report

One of the two men suspected in Monday's Boston Marathon bombing is dead, and the other remains at large after an early morning shootout with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown, reports The Associated Press.

The suspects are brothers from a region of Russia near Chechnya and had lived in the United States for at least one year, the Associated Press reported. The AP identified the surviving suspect as 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, of Cambridge, Mass.

An intense manhunt for the fleeing brother has a whole Boston suburb on lockdown.

The men reportedly shot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer after robbing a Cambridge 7-11 store, then carjacked a Mercedes-Benz. The officer later died and a transit officer was seriously wounded from gunfire. The car-jack victim escaped unharmed.

Police have cordoned off a 20-block of neighboring suburb Waterford and, at about 3:30 a.m. Friday, warned residents that the loose suspect is armed and dangerous and told them not to open their doors to anyone but uniformed police.

Federal agents swarmed the middle-class suburb (about 10 miles from MIT) after the robbery of the convenience store in Cambridge at approximately 10:30 p.m. Thursday, police said. The MIT officer was responding to the call.

The suspects carjacked the Mercedes and fled the scene. Waterford police spotted the stolen vehicle and and engaged in gunfire with the suspects.  During the pursuit, officers could be heard on police radio traffic describing the men as hurling grenades and other explosives — including what one witness described as looking like a pressure cooker bomb and police described as "military grade."

The two men known as “Suspect #1” – seen wearing sunglasses and a black cap in video and pictures – was wounded in a shootout with police, and later died at the hospital.

“Suspect #2,” seen wearing a backwards white cap over his shaggy hair, is still on the loose, said Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis at a hastily-arranged press conference.  Davis is urging residents to stay indoors - and not to pick up any strangers on the side of the road.

Davis called the man a "terrorist ... who came here to kill people."

The FBI has yet to publicly confirm a connection between the events in Watertown and the twin explosions that killed 3 people and injured 170 others at the Boston Marathon on Monday. But according to Boston Police, the suspect who remained at large was the "one in the white hat" seen in the photos released by the bureau on Thursday.

In a radio alert sent issued to fellow officers, the suspect was described as a "white male with dark complexion or a Middle Eastern male with thick curly hair wearing a charcoal gray hooded sweatshirt ... possibly with an assault rifle and explosives." Police in Watertown, Newton, Brighton and Cambridge were put on high alert as the suspect was said to be armed with a "long gun."

Dozens of police officers, many of them off-duty, searched backyards in search of the second suspect, and a police perimeter of several blocks was established. K9 units and SWAT teams searched homes on Spruce Street as officers searched an SUV that the suspects had abandoned. Multiple devices were left in the road and two handguns were recovered, according to police scanners.

NY Bike Tour eliminates fireworks out of respect to Boston Marathon victims

The Five Boro Bike Tour — an annual cycling event through New York City — will be do away with the usual fireworks at the starting line for this year's ride.  Organizers said eliminating the towering pyrotechnics at the start was out of respect to the Boston Marathon victims. It would also prevent rattling some skittish riders and spectators' nerves too.

"We felt it was unfortunately reminiscent of the bomb attacks in Boston," said tour CEO Ken Podziba. "We got calls and e-mails about it, and we agreed 100 percent. It was out of respect for the tragedy. It was the right thing to do."

Otherwise, the annual event will go on as scheduled May 5.

In previous years, the giant sparklers spewed giant flames into the air at the TriBeCa starting line at Church and White Streets.

Some 32,000 riders of all levels are scheduled to make the 40-mile trek from downtown Manhattan and  finish in Staten Island.

Podziba yesterday said his group, which organizes the 34-year-old cycling event, has also asked the MTA to pull its subway, bus and commuter-rail ads and street-pole banners that feature last year’s photo of two smokestack-like columns spewing fireworks among a crush of riders.

He said the organization’s event program will also be redone.

"At this time of sadness and uncertainty, we want to assure riders, volunteers and spectators of the upcoming TD Five Boro Tour that we are working closely with our partners in New York City government to ensure the tour will be a safe and an enjoyable experience for everyone," Podziba said.

Did people loot merchandise from Boston Marathon stalls in wake of explosions? (VIDEO)

Video footage moments after the Boston Marathon bombings appears to show dozens of people grabbing merchandise — which was meant for the exhausted runners who finished the race—  and hauling it off for themselves

In the video, individuals — who are dressed in street clothes and apparently not runners — appear to be grabbing blue and yellow jackets from the cardboard boxes set upon tables near the finish line and calmly walking away. Some of them seem to be stuffing armfuls of jackets into bags, checking sizes  and making exchanges for another.

YouTube and Reddit users have posted footage of the perceived looting while other social media posts argued that these people might be bringing the goods to help the runners who finished the race or the spectators who were injured from the dual blasts.

You be the judge.



The boxes and tent where the jackets were housed near the finish line had apparently been abandoned during confusion in the aftermath of the explosions — which killed three people and injured more than 170.

One user claimed to have been at the scene depicted in the video and said, "they were giving [the jackets] away to comfort the injured."

To some, it may look like there is no rush to get these jackets to anyone but themselves and the scene resembles a leisurely shopping spree at the Lord & Taylor store just across the street.

Hopefully, their motive was lending a helping hand to the injured and not taking home a ghoulish souvenir.

Yankees pay tribute to Boston Marathon victims with 'Sweet Caroline' and Neil Diamond approves

The New York Yankees and its fans paid tribute to the victims of Monday's bomb explosions at the Boston Marathon with what could only be called a fair rendition of Sweet Caroline at the end of the third inning of Tuesday night's game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Bronx Bombers at Yankee Stadium.

The 1969 Neil Diamond hit song about a young Caroline Kennedy has been a tradition at Red Sox home games in Fenway Park since the late 90's and is belted out during the bottom of the eighth inning — even louder when the Sox are ahead.

A sing-along with the famous "Da-DAH-dah" chorus at Yankee Stadium would have been considered blasphemous only 30 hours before but, in the wake of the horrible act of terrorism Monday afternoon, it seemed one way to say our hearts are with the Boston community in song.

While the 30,000-strong Yankee crowd's heart was in the right place, the song came out sounding exactly like a crowd who didn't know the words to a song and were forced to mumble their way through it.

There was some singing inside the House That Jeter Built, but mostly there was was giggling, beer-chugging and ice cream licking before the song was abruptly cut off in the middle of a verse.

Outside the famous stadium, the club earlier unfurled a "United We Stand" banner with the logos of both clubs and had a moment of silence.

Maybe it was being on the short end of a 2-0 game or the chill in the air but even Yankee fans have to admit the song sounds way better reverberating off the Green Monster at Fenway.

At least Diamond tweeted his approval.

Thank you NY Yankees for playing 'Sweet Caroline' for the people of Boston. You scored a home run in my heart. With respect, Neil #OneBoston
— Neil Diamond (@NeilDiamond) April 17, 2013

78-year-old man knocked down by explosion managed to finish Boston Marathon

The elderly man captured on video getting knocked flat on his back — at the moment the first blast went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday — and John Tlumacki's dramatic photo have become two of the most viewed images of the tragedy.  Now the man's face has come to represent the spirit and determination to overcome this senseless crime after he got up and finished the race.

Bill Iffrig, the 78-year-old man in the orange tank top was knocked off his feet just yards from the finish line when the first explosion detonated, said his legs turned to "noodles" from the force of the blast after running four hours in his third Boston Marathon.

As Boston cops, race volunteers and spectators scattered for safety and to help others, Iffrig was helped up by a race official and managed to cross the finish line.

Last night he told ESPN how he knew he was "going down" when he was knocked over by the explosion and knew it was a bomb.

"It was only....feet away from me," he said.  "It was really loud."

He said he was heading for the finish line and "feeling pretty good" when he heard a terrible explosion.

"The shockwaves must have hit my body and my legs just started going like noodles and I knew I was going down right there," he said.

"My legs just gave out," he told CNN Monday night. He said most of the runners just kept on going, but he went down because he was nearest the blast.

He said he never lost consciousness but described how he "woke up" a little later and saw what he believed to be a part of a bomb nearby.

Mr Iffrig said what he saw was a casing that looked like a coffee can, but added: "Then all this smoke was coming from someplace, and I wasn't able to see too much."

When a race official came to help him, Iffrig struggled to his feet and managed to cross the finishing line.

Hopefully, viewers who watched the footage of the first blast will be happy to know what happened to to Iffrig, who appeared seriously hurt as he crumpled to the ground. 

"After you've run 26 miles, you're not going to stop there," said the veteran of 45 marathons.

Iffrig's words and actions are lessons and metaphors for everyone who is affected by this sort of cowardly violence and when sports and the real world meet. Don't let it stop us from getting up and breaking the tape.