Police in tactical gear arrive on an armored police vehicle as they surround an apartment building Friday in Watertown, Mass., while looking for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Charles Krupa | AP Photo
University of Michigan employee Lindsay McCarthy was startled when she woke up Friday morning to a text message from her brother, who lives in Watertown, Mass., telling her that before she turned on the news, he just wanted to let her know his family was safe.
"We all woke up in the morning without realizing what was going on," McCarthy said. "Without knowing what was going on, my first thought was, 'Oh my God, what is happening? Why are you telling me you're OK?'"
McCarthy said she went straight to Twitter around 6 a.m. for the latest updates and that's when she realized the horror of what was happening.
The Associated Press reported that two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing are accused of killing an MIT police officer and throwing explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle overnight.
One suspect was killed and the other is on the loose, authorities told the Associated Press Friday. Thousands of officers were swarming the streets Friday in a manhunt that has nearly shut down the Boston area.
McCarthy said the gunfight happened right on her brother's street, which is located in a small, quiet suburb in Watertown.
"They woke up to what they described as a massive gunfight down the street," McCarthy said. "He said it sounded like an explosion and saw about 20 SWAT team members sprinting down the street. He described it as pretty intense. He said the air smelled like gunpowder."
McCarthy said she and her brother grew up in Pennsylvania and were used to hearing gunfire at times because of hunters in the area, but her brother said he had never heard the sound of automatic machine guns before.
McCarthy said her brother told her he saw "more cop cars than he ever saw" before.
McCarthy said she isn't quite sure at what time it all began, but her brother has been posting updates and descriptions of what's happening on his personal family blog. McCarthy said the first post was at 1:13 a.m.
"At 2:20 a.m., he posted he heard a bomb robot rolling outside," McCarthy said. "It's not something you expect to read about in a small suburban neighborhood."
McCarthy said her brother, his wife and their small child were huddled in their basement Friday with their bags packed and waiting for an update and an opportunity to leave the area.
"They can't leave Watertown because the streets are all shut down," McCarthy said.
The Associated Press reported the suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers from a Russian region near Chechnya. The brothers lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, an uncle told the AP.
McCarthy said she's comforted to know that her family is OK, but the thought of something like this occurring is frightening.
"They're a little shook up," McCarthy said. "It's not something you expect in a small quiet suburb in Boston. It really brings home what some people in other parts of the world have to deal with."
Katrease Stafford covers Ypsilanti for AnnArbor.com.Reach her at katreasestafford@annarbor.com or 734-623-2548 and follow her on twitter.