SWAT teams in Watertown earlier Friday. Photo by Steve Klamkin, WPRO News.
By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
At a press briefing Friday evening, Massachusetts State Police Colonel Timothy Alben said no suspect has been apprehended in the Boston Marathon bombing case. He said he is unsure if 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still in the Boston area, but believes him to be somewhere in Massachusetts.
When asked what message Alben would send to Tsarnaev he said:
"To give himself up. To stop any further violence toward anyone…We cannot continue to lock down an entire city or an entire state."
Despite their lack of arrest, the "shelter in place" order for Boston and surrounding areas has been lifted, and MBTA service has been reinstated. State Police will stay in the area to provide extra security in the following days.
Governor Deval Patrick said the investigation was effectively where it was Monday night or Tuesday morning, noting that the main difference is that one suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is dead.
Patrick said he chose to lift the lock down to allow people to go about their normal business. Still, he cautioned everyone to be extremely vigilant.
Police say the investigation has been "complicated," and that the robbery originally thought to be linked to the suspects was an independent incident.
Despite the twists, turns, and lack of arrest, Alben said they are "committed to seeing a conclusion to this case."
