Updates on the Investigation into Multiple Explosions in Boston

Video and Photos Released in Boston Marathon Bombing Case

View and download higher resolution images

More at: http://www.fbi.gov/bostonbombings

Submit tips to: https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov

To Provide Tips in the Investigation

If you have visual images, video, and/or details regarding the explosions along the Boston Marathon route and elsewhere, submit them on https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov/. No piece of information or detail is too small. You can also call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), prompt #3, with information.

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4/19/2013 Update

Boston Marathon Terrorist Manhunt: Latest News

Boston Marathon Suspect Killed, Second on Loose After Firefight

Police with guns drawn search for a suspect on April 19, 2013 in Watertown, Mass. (Photo credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images; Matt Rourke / AP)

By Pete Williams, Richard Esposito, Michael Isikoff and Tracy Connor

April 19, 2013

Boston and its surburbs, universities and transit system were on total lockdown Friday as police hunted for marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — on the loose after his accomplice brother was killed in a stunning chain of events that left one cop dead and another injured, officials said.

Authorities were confronting a double-edged nightmare: a ruthless killer at large in a densely populated area and a four-mile stretch of road possibly littered with explosive devices tossed from the suspects’ getaway vehicle during a wild chase and firefights.

Two unidentified people were taken into custody at the Cambridge, Mass., home where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan grew up, but they were not being described as additional suspects. Three dozen FBI agents were ringing the house. …

The lockdown initially affected more than 300,000 people in Cambridge, Watertown, Newton, Brighton, Allston and Belmont, but by 8 a.m., the entire city of Boston was paralyzed, officials said. …

The overnight violence began near MIT, just before 11 p.m., about six hours after the FBI released surveillance photos of the two men suspected of planting two bombs near the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding 176.

Tips about the identity of the suspects were still pouring in when the Tsarnaev brothers robbed a 7-Eleven, then fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer Sean Collier, 26, in his vehicle at 10:20 p.m., law enforcement officials said.

The brothers — of Chechen origin, but legal permanent residents of the U.S. who moved here a decade ago — stole the officer’s cruiser and then carjacked a Mercedes SUV, holding the driver captive for a half-hour while they tried to use his cash card to get money from three ATM’s, a source said.

The carjacking victim was released unharmed at a gas station in Cambridge, sources said. He told police the brothers said they were the marathon bombers and had just killed a campus officer.

As the duo sped in his car toward Watertown, a police chase ensued and they tossed explosive devices out the window, officials said.

“There was a long exchange of gunfire,” Andrew Kitzenberg of Watertown told NBC News in an interview.

“They were also utilizing bombs, which sounded and looked like grenades, while engaging in the gunfight,” he said. “They also had what looked like a pressure-cooker bomb.

“I saw them light this bomb. They threw it towards the officers,” he said. “There was smoke that covered our entire street.”

A transit officer, identified as Richard H. Donahue, 33, was injured in the gunfight. …

Kitzenberg said he saw the firefight end when Tamerlan Tsarnaev ran toward the officers and ultimately fell to the ground.

Tamerlan — the man in the black hat from FBI photos released six hours earlier — had an improvised explosive device strapped to his chest, law enforcement officials said.

Dzhokhar — who was wearing a white hat in the surveillance photos from the marathon — drove the SUV through a line of police officers at the end of the street, he said.

Police said he has a Massachusetts driver’s license and lived in Cambridge. He was described as light-skinned and with brown, curly hair, and wearing a gray hoodie. The FBI was releasing more photos of him. …

Full report

 Watch special live coverage from NBC News

The two marathon bombing suspects. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, in the black hat, has been killed. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, in the white hat, remains at large. (Photo: FBI.gov)

Biographical details about Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

What we know: Timeline of the terror hunt

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4/20/2013 Update

Boston Bombing Suspect Captured Alive

An ATF agent leans over Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after he was taken into custody in Watertown, Mass., on April 19, 2013. (Photo credit: ATF via NBC News)

By Pete Williams, Richard Esposito, Michael Isikoff and Tracy Connor

April 19, 2013

The Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night — after holing up in a boat in a suburban backyard following a bloody rampage that left a cop dead and a daylong manhunt that shut down the city.

The arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and the earlier death of his brother during a firefight with cops, ended five days of terror sowed by the double bombing at the marathon finish line, which killed three people, wounded 176 and left the city of Boston on edge. …

Police cornered Tsarnaev — a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chechen origin — around 7 p.m., less than an hour after police lifted a stay-indoors order for the city and its suburbs.

A resident had gone outside to smoke and noticed a tarp on the boat was flapping, a relative told NBC News. When he went to investigate, he saw what looked like a curled-up person and bloody clothes.

The man “freaked out,” ran into the house and called police, the relative said.

Thermal imaging from helicopters confirmed there was a person in the boat, officials said.

Over the course of two hours, several bursts of gunfire could be heard. The police exchanged fire with Tsarnaev, threw flash-bang grenades designed to disorient him and brought a negotiator to the scene as night fell, officials said.

Just before 9 p.m., the wounded Tsarnaev was taken into custody. “He sustained significant blood loss,” a law enforcement official at the scene said. …

Authorities are also not sure of a motive or whether the suspects had help. …

Tsarnaev will be questioned by a federal team called the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which includes officials of the FBI, CIA, and Defense Department, an Obama administration official said.

His apprehension capped a manhunt that had the city of Boston and its suburbs on total lockdown after the execution of a college campus patrol officer, a carjacking and the death of Tsarnaev’s 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, during a 200-bullet confrontation with cops. …

Full report

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5/2/2013 Update

Who’s Who in the Boston Marathon Bombing Investigation

By Erin McClam

May 1, 2013

More details about the Boston Marathon bombing emerged Wednesday — two and a half weeks after the attack killed three people and wounded more than 200 — when two college friends of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were charged with removing a backpack and a laptop from his dorm room and another was charged with lying about it to the feds. …

Now, as the pool of evidence against Tsarnaev grows, so does the list of people related to or involved in the case. The friends — college classmates Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos — are only the most recent names to be added to a list that includes family members, a boxing coach, law enforcement officials, a car hijacking victim, a mechanic and of course the victims killed April 15: Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Liu.

Here is a guide to the many people involved in the Boston Marathon bombing case, and what we know (and don’t) about them.

The Suspects

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19 (Photo credit: The Lowell Sun & Robin Young via AP)

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The Family

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, Anzor Tsarnaev, Katherine Russell, and Ruslan Tsarni (Photo credit: Reuters, AP, Getty Images)

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The Friends

Azamat Tazhayakov, left, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Photo credit: Vkontakt)

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The Officers

MIT campus police officer Sean Collier, left, and MBTA transit police officer Richard Donahue (Photo credit: MIT via Getty Images, MBTA via AP)

Read more

The Marathon Victims

Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, and Lingzi Lu (Photo credit: AP, Campbell family)

Full report