The second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was taken into custody on Friday following an intense gunfight between him and the law enforcement officials.
Announcing the arrest of the second suspect, the Boston Police Department tweeted, "Suspect in custody. Officers sweeping the area."
In a press conference held after the arrest of the 19-year-old suspect, Boston police commissioner, Edward Davis said that Dzhokhar was nabbed from a boat where he was hiding after the officials commenced a door-to-door search to apprehend the alleged suspect.
Narrating the sequence of event that led to the suspect's arrest, Davis told The New York Times, "A man had gone out of his house after being inside the house all day, abiding by our request to stay inside."
"He walked outside and saw blood on a boat in the backyard. He then opened the tarp on the top of the boat, and he looked in and saw a man covered with blood. He retreated and called us," he added.
On receiving information of the suspect's location, the police officials rushed to the spot. The suspect then reportedly opened fire with the police that lasted for almost an hour, at the end of which hostage rescue team of the F.B.I. entered the boat and got hold of the suspect alive. The police commissioner said that the suspect was in serious condition.
Following the arrest of the teen suspect, American President Barack Obama issued an official statement praising the law enforcement officials stating, "We've closed an important chapter in this tragedy."
Meanwhile, the Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino posted: "We got him."
The arrest of Dzhokhar came a day after his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was another suspect in the case, was killed in a gun fight between the police officials and the suspected duo.
The images of the suspects were released based on the video footage of the camera surveillance which showed them carrying suspicious-looking backpacks believed to contain the explosives.
A few hours after the release of their images, the duo shot dead a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology following which they fled the area in a sport utility vehicle which intensified the search for the suspects. The police chased the vehicle during which they threw numerous pipe bombs from their vehicle.
On arriving Watertown, the duo got engaged in an intense gun battle with the police officials that led to the death of Tsarnaev, 26. But Dzhokhar managed to escape from the spot in the car. The whole city was shut down after the police ordered the people to stay indoors fearing that the suspect might be carrying explosives with him. As a result, classes at Harvard, M.I.T., Boston University and other area colleges were cancelled. The Red Sox game at Fenway Park was also postponed.
The police then began a door-to-door search for Dzhokhar and was tipped by a resident about the location of the suspect following which they arrested him.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers from Chechnya who moved to the United States in early 2000s, are the only suspects identified in the Boston Marathon Bombing which led to the death of three and left over 170 injured on Monday.
