14 DAY TRIAL // The town of Watertown, Massachusetts is on lockdown as the police standoff prompted by the search for one of the Boston bombers is still on.
According to a live stream by WHDH, officials have closed down the areas listed above and have banned driving through town, in an effort to protect the safety of residents.
“We believe these are the same individuals that were responsible for the bombing Monday at the Marathon.
“We believe that they are responsible for the death of an MIT police officer and the shooting of an MBTA police officer. This is a very serious situation that we are dealing with,’’ confirms State Police commander, Colonel Timothy Alben.
All public transportation services have also been suspended, Kurt Schwartz of the homeland security department informs in a press conference.
“We are asking you to stay indoors, to stay in your homes for the time being.
“People at bus or subway stations, we are asking them to go home. We do not want people congregating and waiting for the system to come back on.
“We are asking business in those areas to cooperate and not open today until we can provide further guidance,’’ Schwartz says.
Boston.com adds that residents of the neighboring towns of Watertown, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, Cambridge, and Allston-Brighton have also been asked not to leave their residence. A ban on business activity is in place in Watertown as well as the aforementioned locations.
As reported, the standoff involves a serious bomb threat and MIT, Harvard and Emerson have canceled their classes until notice of the crisis ending.
The man that the police are after has been identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev may be a student in Cambridge, having been in the United States for over a year.
The two suspects in the MIT shooting and the Boston Marathon bombings are allegedly brothers immigrating from Russia. The pair hail from a region near Chechnya, and have been living in Cambridge.