One of the Boston bombings Chechen suspects stayed in Turkey for 10 days in July 2003, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler told reporters April 19.

Earlier reports had claimed that the bombers traveled to the United States from Turkey.

NBC News reported that the two young men believed to be responsible for Monday’s deadly carnage at the finish line of the prestigious race are brothers of Chechen origin who were permanent legal residents of the United States.

The pair first tried to rob a convenience store late Thursday in Cambridge, across the river from Boston, according to Boston police.

They then proceeded to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world’s top universities, where one campus police officer was shot dead, the commissioner said. The pair then hijacked a Mercedes car and eventually let the driver out in Watertown, which is close to MIT, Davis added.

The chase went on through Watertown where the two were seen throwing explosives out of the car, local media said, citing police reports. Blasts and gunfire were heard in several districts.

During a shootout, the first suspect was shot and killed, Davis said. Another police officer was also wounded. The second suspect, who has been shown in pictures wearing a white baseball cap, managed to escape.

Police with rifles flooded the streets of Boston, and search helicopters patrolled the skies. Sirens blared across the city as bomb squads carried out house-to-house searches.

The attack in Boston, which sent a hail of nails and shrapnel into a crowd of thousands at the end of the marathon, was the worst terror assault on the United States since the September 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks.

Just hours before the chaotic manhunt unfolded, the FBI on Thursday released pictures and video of the two suspects, appealing for help to identify the pair, who were carrying large backpacks.

Both appeared to be young men, one dressed in a white baseball cap and the other in a black cap. The FBI named them only as Suspect One and Suspect Two.

The men are seen in the video walking calmly, one a few paces behind the other, weaving between crowds on Boston’s Boylston Street where the race finished.

President Barack Obama vowed to the people of Boston Thursday that the “evil” bombers would be brought to justice.

“Yes, we will find you, and yes, you will face justice,” Obama said at a service at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross attended by 2,000 people including blast survivors, relatives of the dead, rescuers and city leaders.

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