• Transportation lockdown lifts as Boston manhunt continues

    Kayana Szymczak / Getty Images

    A stranded traveler waits outside South Station on Friday in Boston. South Station was shut down and heavily guarded with police in response to the early morning shootings in Cambridge and Watertown, Mass.

    By Ben Popken, NBC News

    The transportation lockdown in Boston began to lift Friday evening after being shut down during the day's house-to-house manhunt for the second suspect in the deadly Boston Marathon attacks.

    With limited service, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority resumed all modes of transportation, except for commuter rail. Ferry service resumes Saturday.

    Amtrak service between New York and Boston remains suspended indefinitely, though an announcement about Saturday service appeared to be pending, according to an Amtrak tweet.  Passengers who purchased tickets choosing not to travel on Amtrak because of the service disruption can get refunds or travel vouchers.

    Planes continued to takeoff and land at Boston Logan, but the airport is operating under heightened security, airport officials told NBC News.

    Driving poses its own challenges: Authorities are prohibiting some street traffic and cars having to pass through police roadblocks when entering and leaving the airport. Official taxi service was suspended for several hours this morning, the Boston Police Department said, though it has since resumed.

    Courtesy Paul English

    Police searched cars entering Boston Logan airport this morning.

    After exiting a terminal patrolled by police officers holding assault rifles, AirTran passenger Hunter Wallace told NBC News his group skipped the line of people waiting for a taxi this morning, entered their hotel's address in their phones, and started walking toward the Hyatt Regency. After walking two miles, they still saw cars backed up on the highway waiting to take the airport exit, Wallace said.

    They were eventually picked up by what he described as an early ‘90s Crown Victoria-type car running without a meter or badge, operating despite the ban on taxi service at that time. Their driver was a teenager who had his skateboard in the front seat. Once they arrived at their hotel, the check-in desk told them the police had said to not leave the hotel.

    "We were going to go to the Red Sox game tonight but I don't know if it's going to happen, said Wallace. "We’re going to be here for a while." The ball club announced later that the game was postponed.

    "It's pretty weird," Manasseh Oso told NBC News from a Dunkin' Donuts at Boston Logan airport, where he and 30 other fellow Harvard pre-freshman students were stranded after Boston's T-line service shut down. The scene in Terminal E was "quiet," said Oso, with everyone "staring into their iPads and phones, glued to social media about what's going on" and trying to arrange rides from friends and family or rental car companies.

    In a sign of the day's transportation confusion, despite their social media immersion, the students were still under the impression that taxis service was suspended, though the Boston Police had tweeted an hour earlier that service had been restored.

    Kayana Szymczak / Getty Images

    Stranded travelers wait outside South Station on Monday.

    All forms of transportation in and around Boston have been affected by the city-wide lock down. Amtrak announced it had suspended Acela Express and Northeast Regional service indefinitely in the Boston area.

    Regional bus lines, such as Megabus, Greyhound, Bolt Bus, and Peter Pan bus lines have also suspended service, with customers receiving options for refunds or rebooking, according to an AP report.

    Most of the airlines flying to Logan waived ticket change fees for those traveling today through Monday to Boston, and gave refunds to those with canceled flights, including AirTran, American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, United and Virgin Airlines. Some also waived fare differences.

    The Federal Aviation Administration shut down airspace over a Boston neighborhood Friday morning to give police a "safe environment for law-enforcement activities." 

    The agency issued a 3.5 nautical-mile (roughly 4 miles) radius temporary flight restriction over Watertown early Friday up to 3,000 feet. Effective immediately, no pilot may operate an aircraft in the restricted area until further notice, according to an FAA bulletin. The measure is similar to one enacted Monday following the bombing.

    Friday evening the agency issued an additional 2 nautical-mile (roughly 2.3 miles) radius restriction over Boston up to 2,000 feet, also on behalf of law-enforcement activities.

    The AP contributed to this report.

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  • Timeline of terror hunt: From release of suspect photos to rolling shootout to capture

    Watch how events unfolded during the Boston manhunt for the marathon bombers from the initial blast to the suspects' capture.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The search for two brothers accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings evolved rapidly between Thursday night and Friday evening throughout the locked-down city of Boston and its surrounding suburbs. A firefight between police and the suspects early Friday morning left one of the brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, dead. Younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, was captured in Watertown, Mass., on Friday night after an intense manhunt and has been hospitalized.

    The blanket of fear on this community was lifted when it was confirmed that 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was no longer a threat. NBC's Kerry Sanders recounts how the events unfolded

    Below is a timeline of how the events transpired:

    Thursday, April 18, 5 p.m. (all times ET and approximate) – The FBI releases photos and a surveillance video that show two men, one wearing a white baseball cap and the second wearing a black cap. Each man was carrying a backpack in the footage. The FBI said they should be considered “armed and extremely dangerous.”

    7 p.m. – Names start pouring into the FBI in response to their release of photos.

    10:20 p.m. – Gunshots are heard on the MIT campus. 

    Around 10:30 p.m. – MIT police officer Sean Collier, 26, is found shot in his vehicle. He is taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced dead. Shortly after the shooting, the suspects allegedly carjack a Mercedes SUV in a separate section of Cambridge. The suspects held the carjacking victim at gunpoint for a half hour before releasing him unharmed at a gas station, according to the Middlesex District Attorney.

    11:20 p.m. – Authorities tell the public to stay indoors. Around this time, the suspects try to use a debit card stolen from the man whose car they jacked to withdraw money from three ATMs. The first attempt was unsuccessful, but they allegedly withdrew $800 on the second attempt. At the third ATM, the withdrawal attempt was denied for exceeding the man’s daily limit.

    Shortly after, police pursue the suspects into Watertown, west of Cambridge, in the carjacked vehicle. The suspects toss explosive devices from the SUV, according to the district attorney, seriously injuring a public transit police officer, Richard Donohue. One of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is critically injured, and later pronounced dead in the early hours of Friday morning.

    Adam Andrew and Megan Marrer are currently under lockdown in their home in Watertown, Mass., where police engaged in a shootout with the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing last night.

    Friday, April 19, about 1:15 a.m. – A massive police presence, including state troopers and police cruisers with lights and sirens blaring, fill the Boston suburb of Watertown. Several ambulances were also on the scene.

    1:31 a.m. – MIT advises people on campus to remain indoors. “Police have NOT determined that the campus is safe.”

    1:57 a.m. – “Police have determined that the suspect in this evening’s shooting is no longer on campus,” MIT tweets. “It is now safe to resume normal activities.”

    2 a.m. – The FBI releases four new photos of the two men, one in a white hat and one in a black hat, at the Boston Marathon.

    2:20 a.m. – The suspects, hiding behind the black Mercedes SUV in Watertown, engage in a shootout with a large number of police officers. The men, about 200 feet apart, exchanged constant gunfire, and the two shooters lit an explosive that lands in the space between themselves and the police, then exploded. One of the two men then ran toward police and was tackled, an eyewitness says.

    While it is known that one suspect is down in Watertown, it is still not clear at this point whether the shooting at MIT and the firefight in Watertown are related to the Boston Marathon bombings.

    4:16 a.m. – Law enforcement sources confirm that the suspect pictured in the black hat is dead, and the suspect in the white hat is at-large and considered armed and dangerous. The officials say the shootings at MIT and in Watertown are directly related to the marathon bombings.

    MSNBC's Willie Geist,  Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle talk about the "unprecedented events" which led to the entire city of Boston being placed on lockdown.

    4:19 a.m. – Officials in Watertown ask all residents to shelter in place.

    4:35 a.m. – Watertown police officers continue to search the neighborhood on foot and in patrol cars.

    5:01 a.m. – The suspects have international ties and may have military experience, officials reveal. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the dead suspect, had an improvised explosive device strapped to him, officials say.

    5:20 a.m.-6:30 a.m. – Local universities and colleges including Harvard, Boston University, Emerson College, Boston College, and MIT cancel classes and tell students to remain in place. Boston Public Schools suspended all activities.

    5:45 a.m. – Boston cancels all MBTA public transportation service throughout the city.

    6:30 a.m. – Amtrak service into and out of Boston South Station is delayed by police activity. Amtrak officials temporarily suspend train service between Boston and Providence, R.I.

    7 a.m. – More than 400,000 people shelter in place in the neighborhoods of Cambridge, Newton, Waltham, Brighton, Watertown, and Allston-Brighton. Authorities say the two suspects are brothers.

    About 7:30 a.m. – The two suspects are identified for the first time publicly. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was identified as the suspect in the white hat who was still at large. He was born in Kyrgyzstan. His brother, Tamerlan Tzarnaev, 26, was born in Russia, authorities said. He was the deceased suspect.

    8 a.m. – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick urges all residents in Boston and the surrounding area to remain indoors as authorities engage in a “massive manhunt.” Officials extend the shelter-in-place order across the city.

    About 10 a.m. – Officials identify the deceased MIT police officer publicly for the first time as Sean Collier, 26, of Somerville.  A former civilian IT employee of the Somerville Police Department, he had served at MIT since January 2012.

    12:30 p.m. – Authorities request that residents remain in their homes, saying that about 60 percent of the area they want to search in Watertown had been covered without an apprehension.

    Slideshow: Search for suspects in Boston Marathon bombings

    A tense night of police activity that left a university officer dead on campus just days after the Boston Marathon bombings amid a hunt for two suspects caused officers to converge on a neighborhood outside Boston, where residents heard gunfire and explosions.

    Launch slideshow

    6 p.m. -- Authorities lift the order for people stay in their homes and reopen Boston transit. Gov. Deval Patrick says people must remain vigilant because “there is still a very, very dangerous individual at large.” Col. Timothy Alben of Massachusetts State Police says the suspect has not been apprehended but vows that he will be.

    7 p.m. -- A barrage of gunfire is fired in a Watertown neighborhood.

    7:35 p.m. -- Authorities say that after resident saw blood leading to a boat in the backyard of a Watertown home and discovered a person hiding inside, they used thermal imaging that showed a person still there.

    8:05 p.m. -- Police move in on the boat and believe the suspect is hiding there.

    8:45 p.m. -- Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is captured alive, police say.

    Upon hearing that the second suspect has been caught, residents in the neighborhood break out in spontaneous applause as a week of terror concludes. 

    Tsarnaev, bleeding and in serious condition, is taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, according to a Massachusetts State Police spokesman.

    He will be questioned by a federal team once he is well enough to be interrogated, but under a special legal exception designed to protect public safety, he will not get a Miranda warning or be offered a lawyer for up to 48 hours.

     

    NBC News’ Pete Williams, Ron Allen, Tom Winter, Michael Isikoff, Erin McClam, John Bailey, Richard Esposito and Elizabeth Chuck contributed to this report.

    Related: 

    This story was originally published on Fri Apr 19, 2013 9:19 AM EDT

  • Va. campus locked down after attempted robberies, gunman spotted

    By NBC News

    A campus lockdown was lifted early Friday at Ferrum College in southwest Virginia after two attempted robberies, including one in which students reported seeing a gun, authorities said.

    The first robbery was reported outside the Riddick Hall dormitory, Ferrum College spokeswoman Kim Blair told NBC station WSLS-10 in Roanoke. The second attempted robbery occurred at gunpoint near a soccer field, she said.


    The first campus-wide alert was issued at 10:22 p.m. ET and was followed by two others.

    “Person with a gun. Stay inside / lock doors. Lockdown in progress,” the third alert, issued at 11:12 p.m. ET, said.

    The lockdown was lifted at 6 a.m. ET Friday, an official with campus police told NBC News on condition his name not be used.

    The suspected gunman had not been located and the investigation was ongoing, he said. Campus security was in charge of the investigation, he added.

    Full US coverage on NBCNews.com

    Ferrum College is located in Ferrum, a town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 35 miles southwest of Roanoke.

    In 2007, a student gunman killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, about 50 miles northwest of Ferrum.

    After that incident, many universities began employing an alert system using college websites and text messages to warn students of dangers.

    WSLS-10’s Morgan Donnelly contributed to this report.

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  • Robbery sparks epic chase, college lockdown, arrest at baseball diamond

    View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

    By NBCLosAngeles.com and wire reports

    LOS ANGELES -- A violent pawn shop robbery on Wednesday sparked a police chase across three California counties, a carjacking, an eight-hour lockdown for thousands of college students and staff, and the arrest of three suspects, including one within sight of Los Angeles' police chief at a charity event.

    Two suspects remained at large early Thursday but the lockdown at California State University, Fullerton ended at 12:10 a.m. local time (3:10 a.m. ET).

    The chase began after five men wearing ski masks and armed with handguns robbed at pawn shop in Moreno Valley at about 3 p.m. (6 p.m. ET), shooting an employee of the store.


    The clerk was shot four times and underwent surgery at Riverside County Regional Medical Center, where he was in a critical but stable condition on Wednesday night.

    Pawn shop clerk shot 4 times in robbery that sparked pursuits, campus lockdown

    California Highway Patrol officers responded to a call describing the suspect vehicle and followed it to Fullerton.

    At 3:47 p.m., the pursuit ended after the car exited the Orange (57) Freeway and stopped after it was involved in a minor collision in front of the university campus, Fullerton police Sgt. Jeff Stuart said at a news conference.

    Nearly 10,000 students were at the university preparing for next week's finals when two men ran onto campus, where one was immediately taken into custody. The other man fled and was seen going into the school’s Mihaylo Hall, where business and economics are taught, Stuart said.

    The school activated the lockdown at about 4 p.m. local time (7 p.m. ET), sending a text to students telling them to stay where they were, The Associated Press reported.

    The three other men headed southbound from campus. One was taken into custody, and another carjacked a vehicle and led authorities on a high-speed chase. The driver blew through several stop signs and red lights in residential areas of Compton.

    Read more from NBCLosAngeles.com

    The man abandoned the car in the Watts area of Los Angeles and ran through a crowded area before surrendering on a baseball field at Imperial Courts Recreation Center, which was hosting a toy drive held by the Los Angeles Police Department.

    LAPD Chief Charlie Beck was among those attending the event and chased after the suspect as he headed toward the baseball diamond, away from dozens of police officers gathered at the park.

    Chris Bugbee, a spokesman for Cal State Fullerton, told NBC that police had captured a total of three suspects, but two remained at large.

    Stuart said SWAT team members were searching the area.

    "A large number of students were able to flee the building where the suspect ran into. They've been evacuated from the campus. Those students and staff members that are still on campus are in what's called a shelter in place," Stuart said before the lockdown was lifted. "Our goal is to go around and rescue those individuals as we do our search. This is going to be an all-night operation."

    He added: "It's a huge campus, so it's a very daunting task."

    Read more US stories from NBC News

    A student in one of the locked-down buildings said he witnessed officers checking every classroom.

    "A cop came running through and he said, 'They have guns, they have guns,'" said another witness, Shant Fermanian. "So all these people started rushing so me and my cousin, we looked up, and we just got out of there as soon we can. We had no idea what was going on."

    Fermanian said he saw a man, who was later taken into custody, run around a nearby building but did not see any weapons.

    Christine Accetta, locked down in McCarthy Hall, tweeted a photo about 6:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. ET) of a barricade students created inside a classroom. Four hours later, Accetta tweeted: "We have been released!"

     

    Another student, Raquel Mireles, said the university had been regularly in touch with students via text message with updates on the developing situation.

    "They're just trying ... to keep us safe," Mireles said, who said she was in College Park. "They're being really helpful. The cops have come through and told us to stay calm."

    She said the blinds had been closed in the classroom she was in, and chairs had been placed in front of the door.

    "The lights are off. We're kind of just all huddled together right now," Mireles said.

    While she talked on air to NBC4, a loudspeaker announcement told her to evacuate the building.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Lockdown on Army base lifted; equipment still missing

    By NBC News and news services

    JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – A company of soldiers has been released from lockdown at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington as criminal investigators probe the theft of $600,000 worth of weapons accessories.

    About 100 soldiers from the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division were allowed to return home Tuesday evening after being restricted to their battalion headquarters since Jan. 4.

    Sources told KING5 the equipment went missing sometime between Christmas and New Year's. Someone realized a lock had been changed in the weapons room, and no one had a key to it.

    Read original story on KING5.com

    After breaking through the lock, JBLM officials tallied about $600,000 worth of missing weapon sights, night vision devices, optics, rifle scopes and other items.

    NBC sources said they do not believe the equipment was stolen for espionage, but rather to sell for profit.

    Brigade commander Col. Michael Getchell told The Associated Press the restrictions "have been an integral part of the investigation."

    An Associated Press phone message to the investigating office was not immediately returned.

    Lockdowns are a common military practice in cases like these, JBLM spokesman Major Chris Ophardt told NWCN.com.

    In March 2001, about 150 soldiers faced a similar situation over a one pair of missing night vision goggles, he said.

    KING5 and The AP contributed to this report.

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