If you're just waking up, wondering about the developments that unfolded in Boston last night, grab a caffeinated beverage and take a deep breath.
With a bomb strapped to his chest, one of the Boston Marathon suspects was killed early Friday after he and his accomplice brother robbed a 7-Eleven, shot a police officer to death, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives in an extraordinary firefight with law enforcement, authorities told NBC News.The second suspect -- the one in the white hat in photos released by the FBI -- was on the loose, and police ordered people in the Boston suburbs to stay inside and businesses not to open. Boston shut down its buses and subway system for the hunt.
NBC News reports that the suspects are brothers of Chechen origin* with military experience. The suspect who was killed overnight was Tamerlan Tzarnaev, 26, who was born in Russia and became a legal permanent resident in 2007. The brother who remains on the loose is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, born in Kyrgyzstan 19 years ago. He has a Massachusetts driver's license.
A four-mile stretch of streets between the Massachusetts towns of Cambridge and Watertown have been shut down, and area residents have been urged to stay indoors. Local businesses and schools have been closed.
The series of events reportedly began around 11 p.m., when the suspects shot and killed a police officer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stole his vehicle, robbed a convenience store, carjacked a Mercedes SUV, and briefly took its driver hostage. As a chase ensured, the brothers threw explosives out the window, and shot a Boston transit police officer.
The dead suspect had an improvised explosive device strapped to his chest, raising fears of other possible explosives in the area.
Stay tuned.
* edited slightly for clarity