Gunfire, Car Chases, and Bombs Reported in Watertown, Mass, Livetweeted by Wes Alums

Wes alums Jared Keller ’09 and Phil Ross ’12 are tweeting live as the story develops.

Police scene at MIT, via MSNBC.

Police scene at MIT, via MSNBC.

We usually stick to Wesleyan-centric news,  but it’s hard not to be alternately captivated and terrified by the news coming out of the Boston region right now, in Watertown, on MIT’s campus, and within miles of Tufts. Several hours ago, MIT posted an alert about an active shooter on campus and later reported that a campus police officer was shot and killed. Meanwhile, in nearby Watertown, there have been “reports of violence and an extremely heavy police presence,” according to NBC. Witnesses have been reporting gunfire, loud booms, and a police chase. You can listen to the Boston Police Scanner here, though it remains entirely unclear if the situation in Watertown is related to the shooting at MIT or, as some have speculated, the Boston Marathon bombings:

The situation seems to have culminated in a massive police standoff. As the Times reports:

Regardless of the details, what a frightening and endless week it has been for news. Wesleying sends its best to any Wesleyan families or community members in the Boston area or otherwise affected by the violence. Stay safe, Boston. As social media (and Reddit) continues to revolutionize the way ongoing crime stories are reported and consumed, you can follow Wesleyan alums Jared Keller ’09 (@jaredbkeller), a Watertown native and Bloomberg News staffer, and Phil Ross ’12 (@PhilRoss10) for live coverage of the scene. Also, follow @InTheCac for relevant retweets. Here’s Ross:

And because it hasn’t been said enough:

Happy WesFest, everyone. Stay safe, stay sane, and if you’re in eastern Massachusetts, stay inside.

Update, 3:04 a.m.: This story just took another bizarre turn. The suspect in custody, according to the scanner, is reportedly a missing Brown University student, Sunil Tripathi:

Tripathi has been missing since March. The suspected connection between him and the bombing first arose on Reddit. Here’s a GIF demonstrated similarities between him and the suspect photo released by the FBI.

6:01 a.m.: NBC is now reporting that Sunil Tripathi is not the suspect (and Reddit was wrong). Suspect #1 is reported dead, and suspect #2 remains on the loose, armed and dangerous. Phil Ross ’12, who continues livetweeting from Watertown, just called me to report that “Boston is shutting down for the day, because there’s a fucking terrorist on the loose.” AP confirms.

6:51 a.m.: Ross has uploaded video from this morning’s press conference:

AP is now reporting that the suspect on the loose is Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass. Not the missing Brown student that Reddit “identified.”

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