Four days after twin bombs killed three people and wounded hundreds at the Boston Marathon finish line, a Watertown resident discovered blood on his boat's tarp and called police, leading to the capture of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wounded and hiding inside. His brother Tamerlan had died hours earlier in a gun battle with police. The manhunt had shut down an entire metropolitan area of over 1 million people for most of the day.
The bombing on April 15 had killed three spectators, including 8-year-old Martin Richard, and wounded more than 260 people near the marathon finish line. Investigators released grainy surveillance images of two suspects wearing backpacks, and on the night of April 18 the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly murdered an MIT police officer, carjacked a vehicle, and engaged police in a chaotic firefight and grenade battle in Watertown that left Tamerlan dead, struck by gunfire and then run over by his fleeing brother.
Dzhokhar escaped the scene, triggering an unprecedented "shelter in place" order that shut down Boston and surrounding towns — empty streets, halted transit, and thousands of law enforcement officers conducting house-to-house searches. The lockdown was lifted around 6 p.m. with no suspect found.
Minutes later, Watertown resident David Henneberry stepped outside for the first time that day and noticed his boat's tarp had come loose, revealing blood inside. He called 911. Police surrounded the boat, exchanged gunfire, and eventually took the wounded 19-year-old into custody around 8:45 p.m. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was later convicted and sentenced to death for the bombing, which remains one of the most significant terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11.
Key people: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev