Multiple shots and booms continue to echo through Watertown
WATERTOWN -- Gunfire and multiple loud booms could be heard Friday night amid intense police activity here following a day-long manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Tsarnaev, 19, is the surviving suspect.
The events were unfolding about half a mile away from where the suspect’s brother, Tamerlan, 26, died in a shootout with police early Friday morning.
Television showed police in tactical gear and armor rushing to the scene in the Watertown neighborhood. An ambulance stood at the ready. Helicopters flew overhead.
Captured: Boston bombing suspect
After the first flurry of gunshots, at least three more shots were counted, along with several louder booms that sounded like explosions.
There was no confirmation about the number of shots fired or whether police had cornered Tsarnaev. Officials would only say that there there was activity in connection with the search for the surviving suspect.
State police spokesman David Procopio told the Associated Press that there was “renewed activity in Watertown related to today’s events.”
The activity came at the end of a tense day in Boston and its suburbs, and less than an hour after authorities announced that they were lifting their request that people stay indoors while officials searched house-to-house.
But Watertown residents were told to stay indoors.
Daniela and Richie Salerno had just headed outside to catch a breath of fresh air after a day cooped up inside their house. They got as far as the end of their driveway on Bailey Street.
PHOTOS: Boston bombing suspects
“And you just heard: ba-ba-ba-ba.” Richie Salerno said, making the sound of the shots that had been fired. They ran back inside.
“I hope this is it,” Daniela Salerno said.
Julia Cavanaugh, who lives in Watertown, went outside with her daughters after the lockdown was lifted. Then shots rang out.
“We were outside and heard them and grabbed the kids and ran inside,” she said.
Emily Holmes, 33, of Watertown, education director at the Paul Revere House, a museum in Boston, said she lives 1.5 miles from where she believes shots were fired.
“I’m hearing what sounded like shots being fired shortly after they lifted the ban, a series of quick shots. It took me a minute to register what was happening.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
