Police captured Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Friday night, ending a tense, five-day drama that gripped Massachusetts with fear and rekindled the specter of terror across the nation.

Police arrested the 19-year-old at about 8:45 p.m., after finding him holed up in a covered boat stored in the backyard of a Watertown residence. He was led to an ambulance and driven to a hospital, where he is listed in serious condition.

Tsarnaev’s capture came two hours after Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick ended a Boston-area lockdown after a massive, day-long search of suburban Watertown, which seemingly failed to flush out the teenager.

Dozens of bystanders cheered and applauded as police left the scene.

James Maserejian, 48, a jeweler, who lives near the capture scene, said the capture is just the beginning of a new phase in the search for answers. As word that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found, Maserejian stressed the importance that Tsarnaev should live and be made to face the victims of his crimes and their families.

“We need answers,” he said. “Why did he do it? What were his causes? Why did he take innocent lives?”

The capture came quickly – and somewhat unexpectedly. Minutes after government officials lifted an order to residents of Watertown to stay in their homes, a man on the town’s Franklin Street ventured outside for the first time in a day. That’s when he spotted the blood smeared on the boat parked in his driveway. He lifted the tarp and saw a man lying there covered in blood.

The man’s discovery Friday night marked the end of a manhunt that consumed Bostonians for a anxious 24 hours.

Police, who arrived on the scene immediately, exchanged fire with the man for an hour, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. In the end, it took the FBI’s hostage rescue team another hour to coax Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, from the boat and take him into custody.

SWAT teams had spent the day in a house by house search within a 20-block perimeter, but came up short.

“He managed to elude us by being slightly outside the perimeter we set up,” he said..

Police proceeded cautiously, fearing Tsarnaev would have explosives and homemade hand grenades like he’d used when he and his brother confronted police the night before. A helicopter flying overhead trained its heat-seeking sensors on the boat to confirm someone lay under the tarp.

He had been wounded in a early Friday morning firefight with police that killed older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26.

“We’re exhausted, but we have a victory here tonight,” said Col. Timothy Alben, State Police Superintendent.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said charges against Tsarnaev have not yet been determined. “This is still an active, on-going investigation,” Ortiz said, adding that it will be Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision whether to seek the death penalty.

President Obama praised law enforcement.

“Tonight, our nation is in debt to the people of Boston and to the people of Massachusetts,” he said at the White House.

The president said “there are still many unanswered questions” about the bombing, and the families of this week’s victims deserve answers. Obama said he has directed the FBI and other agencies to get those answers.

“We will determine what happened,” Obama said, including any international connections the suspects may have had.
Obama also asked Americans not to “rush to judgement” on the case, including possible motives for the bomb