Boston bombing suspect: City shut down amid manhunt

WATERTOWN, Mass. -- With the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing still at large early Friday morning, Gov. Deval Patrick ordered everyone in the city to stay home.

“There is a massive manhunt underway,” he said at a morning press conference, calling it a “rapidly developing situation.”

Police Col. Timothy P. Alben added, “It may take hours.”

Earlier, the governor ordered a shutdown of the city’s public transportation system and officials urged people in some suburbs to stay home from work and school.

“We are asking businesses not to open,” Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Director Kurt Schwartz told reporters at an impromptu news conference just after dawn. “We are asking people not to congregate outside.”

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Officials urged residents of Watertown, where a dramatic scene unfolded overnight, to take particular caution.

“Search for armed suspect continues in Watertown,” the Boston Police Department said in a tweet early Friday. “Residents reminded to remain indoors. All vehicle traffic suspended.”

Bostonians woke up to news of a slew of other closures too.

Amtrak stopped running trains between Boston and Providence, R.I. Boston Public Schools canceled all Friday activities. And Harvard, MIT, Emerson College, Boston College and Boston University canceled classes until further notice.

Pam Curtis of Belmont, which is near Watertown, told The Times that even inside her home she feels a bit uneasy.

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“It’s very strange; it really is,” she said. “When you know there’s a suspect anywhere around.”

Drew Loucks, 30, who processed the news of the manhunt as he walked to work early Friday morning, likened it to a scene from a movie or a war zone.

“You don’t really feel like you’re in Boston,” he said. “It’s really scary.”

Andrew Tangel in Boston and Maeve Reston in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

alana.semuels@latimes.com

marisa.gerber@latimes.com

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