Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, is in custody, after a tense standoff at a Watertown, Massachusetts residence.
Within hours of capturing the suspect, state trooper Col. Timothy Alben made the announcement to a cheering crowd in the bedroom community.
"We have a suspect in custody," he said at the 9:30 p.m. ET press conference. "We're exhausted folks. But we have a victory here tonight."
Early Friday evening, a massive police operation converged on a plastic-wrapped boat parked in a driveway -- where one of the two Russian-born Chechen brothers had been spotted earlier by a neighbour.
A police helicopter then flew overhead with a heat sensor to confirm that someone was, in fact, in the boat. A robot was reportedly used to pull back the plastic cover.
"We have movement in the boat," came a dispatch over a police scanner. "He just stood up."
The tense two-hour standoff ended with police coaxing the suspect out of the boat.
"He was covered in blood," Boston police commissioner Ed Davis told reporters. "We assume that those injuries took place the evening before."
CBS News reports that applause broke out among bystanders at the standoff's conclusion, as the suspect was taken to hospital in an ambulance.
An official at the U.S Justice Department told ABC News, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev won't be read Miranda nights, claiming he represents a public safety exception.
According to the FBI's website, such an exception "permits law enforcement to engage in a limited and focused unwarned interrogation and allows the government to introduce the statement as direct evidence."
Liveblog continues below gallery
Manhunt For Suspect #2
Law enforcement officials and family members earlier in the day identified the suspects as 19-year-old Massachusetts college student Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who had died in the wee morning hours. The manhunt then focused on the younger brother. The ethnic Chechen brothers from Russia lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, an uncle said.
PHOTO: This still frame from video shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev visible through an ambulance after he was captured in Watertown, Mass., Friday, April 19, 2013. A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)
In a long night of violence that began Thursday evening, when an MIT policeman was killed, and another law enforcement officer was severely wounded. The suspects hurled explosives at police during a gun battle and car chase that ended with the younger brother slipping through officers' fingers in a hail of bullets, authorities said.
During the press conference, state governor Deval Patrick thanked the thousands of police officers who "brought their A game" to the investigation.
"It was a very, very complicated case, a very challenging case and there are still some questions remaining to be answered," he said.
Patrick also thanked the public for the wave of support for the investigation.
"It's a night where I think we're all going to rest easy."