The Tribune

By CARA BETHEL

cbrennen@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN medical assistant and her family were caught up in the manhunt for a Boston Marathon bomb suspect.

Tenelle Kimple works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – where two suspected Boston Marathon bombers allegedly shot and killed a campus police officer in their attempt to escape capture.

She told the Big T yesterday that people in the Watertown area were cautious and scared, but determined to carry on in honour of the marathon victims.

Tenelle, whose husband and other family members also live in Boston, said that people had been on high alert since the police ordered Watertown to stay on ‘lockdown’ during the intensive manhunt for 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

He was captured and taken into custody last night, shortly before 9pm.

Earlier, his older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot and killed during an exchange of gun fire between the pair and law enforcement.

After the shootout, the area was put on lockdown as police and FBI officials searched for Dzhokhar.

Before his capture, Tenelle said: “Everyone is trying to keep upbeat, but you can tell that people are cautious and scared. But the mayor has asked everyone to stay strong and asked everyone to do what they could to assist police in the investigation.”

Tenelle said she received a text very early Friday first saying that classes at MIT were cancelled and then a second text saying that all staff were asked not to come into work.

She said her mother lives just four blocks from where Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed by police.

Three people died and more than 170 were hurt when two bombs exploded near the finish line of Monday’s marathon.

Tenelle said she was at home on Monday, which residents in Boston call ‘Marathon Day’.

“School was closed so I didn’t have to go into work. Marathon Day is always crazy. I go to watch the marathon every year, but for some reason I just didn’t go this year. I have several friends whose husbands or boyfriends ran the marathon, but they are all okay,” she said.

Tenelle said there had been a detectable change in the city’s atmosphere during the week.

“I take the train into work every day and you could just tell that security was upped tremendously. Everywhere you went you could see a military presence, and as you got on the trains your bags were searched. But even with all of that the mayor requested that where possible people carry on as normal as possible.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday told The Big T that it was difficult to say how many Bahamains live in Boston, as people generally do not inform consulates when they move through the United States, making it difficult for consular services to locate them when incidents happen.

During Thursday’s long night of violence, the brothers allegedly killed an MIT police officer, severely wounded another lawman and hurled explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle, authorities said.

The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechen brothers who had lived in Dagestan, which neighbours Chechnya in southern Russia. They had been in the US for about a decade, an uncle said, and were believed to be living in Cambridge, Mass.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a 26-year-old who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 and was seen in surveillance footage of the marathon in a black baseball cap, was killed Friday morning. His younger brother, had been dubbed Suspect No. 2 and was seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the images from Monday’s bombing.

Their uncle in Maryland, Ruslan Tsarni, pleaded on live television: “Dzhokhar, if you are alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness.”

Authorities in Boston suspended all mass transit and warned close to one million people in the city and some of its suburbs to stay indoors as the hunt for Suspect No. 2 went on. Businesses were asked not to open. People waiting at bus and subway stops were told to go home. The Red Sox and Bruins postponed their games.

From Watertown to Cambridge, police SWAT teams, sharpshooters and FBI agents surrounded various buildings as police helicopters buzzed overhead and armoured vehicles rumbled through the streets. Authorities also searched trains.

Dzhokhar had been hiding in a boat in a neighborhood near Boston. The crowd gathered near the scene let out a cheer when spectators saw officers clapping.

“Everyone wants him alive,” said Kathleen Paolillo, a 27-year-old teacher who lives in the area.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted, “We got him.”