© Associated PressThe father of Boston bomb suspects, Anzor Tsaraev reacts as he talks to the media about his sons, in his home in the Russian city of Makhachkala, April 19, 2013
Anzor Tsarnaev spoke to ABC News from his home in the Russian city of Makhachkala as Boston police carried out an intense dragnet for his son Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, survived a running gun battle with police during the night that left an MIT security officer dead and a Boston cop badly wounded. His older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout.
The father said he spoke to his sons by phone earlier this week. "We talked about the bombing. I was worried about them," Anzor Tsarnaev said.
He said his sons reassured him, saying, "Everything is good, Daddy. Everything is very good."
The elder Tsarnaev, in a series of conversations with ABC News, insisted that his sons were innocent, but said he would appeal to his son to "surrender peacefully."
"Give up. Give up. You have a bright future ahead of you. Come home to Russia," the dad said.
The father warned, however, "If they killed him, then all hell would break loose."
"If they kill my second child, I will know that it is an inside job, a hit job. The police are to blame," the father told ABC News. "Someone, some organization is out to get them."
Anzor Tsarnaev said that his sons were "set up" and that they are "very nice kids" who have no experience with weapons and explosives.
The father said his two daughters, ages 22 and 24, live in the U.S. One lives in West New York, N.J.
Profiles of the brothers give a conflicting picture.
The older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was described as an outgoing person who was a champion boxer, a "decent" pianist, drove a Mercedes and liked the movie Borat. But in captions on an undated boxing photo album operated by photographer Johannes Hirn, Tamerlan Tsarnaev said, "I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them."
He also told the photographer he was a "very religious" Muslim boxer who did not smoke or drink. One caption said he usually did not take his shirt off so girls wouldn't get bad ideas.
"There are no values anymore," he said, and worried that "people can't control themselves."
The younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is now described as willing to die in a battle with police, but he was better known for taking acting classes, advanced placement courses and being a star athlete with lots of friends in high school.
He played soccer every Monday with University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth classmates, but didn't show up for this week's game. He didn't return his teammates calls. One teammate told ABC News that Dzhokar Tsarnaev was a "quiet guy" who was "a little bit of a druggie."
"He never seemed out of the ordinary at all," high school classmate Sierra Schwartz told Good Morning America today. "This is not someone who seemed troubled in high school or shy. He was just one of us. It's very weird."
Steven Owens told ABC News, "I met him when I was in seventh grade and he was just a great kid. He was fun to be around. Very studious, very smart. I don't remember a time when he was ever having trouble in school. He was a great athlete. Great to be around."
Owens said Tsarnaev "always had a positive attitude," but had expressed some political opinions in school.
"He always thought the war [Iraq, Afghanistan] was stupid," Owens said. "He didn't enjoy the idea of war. We didn't really talk about it much. The only time it ever really came up was when we were learning about it in school."
When Owens first saw authorities' photos of Tsarnaev, he wasn't positive it was him since he hadn't seen him in a few years.
"I started looking through my yearbook because I thought I recognized him and there he was," Owens said. "I was just so surprised."
After high school, Tsarnaev went to UMass Dartmouth. School officials said today that students are being evacuated from their dorms, following confirmation that Tsarnaev lived in the Pinedale residence hall.
The search for Tsarnaev, of Cambridge, Mass., has effectively shut down Boston and its surrounding cities today, including Watertown, Mass., where the brother was killed in an overnight shootout.
Boston is on lockdown and police are engaged in a large operation in Watertown.
Law enforcement sources tell ABC News the suspects are believed to be brothers are of Chechen ethnicity and their family came from the semi-autonomous Russian province of Dagestan. A law enforcement source confirmed that at least one of the brothers is a legal permanent resident in the United States.
Bomb Suspects Uncle Calls Nephews "Losers"
Both brothers were born in Kyrgyzstan, according to their uncle Ruslan Tsarni who said he has not seen his nephews since December 2005. The uncle was angry over what his nephews are accused of doing.
The enraged uncle said the only explanation for their behavior is "hatred to those that were able to settle themselves" and "being losers."
"If you are alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the injured and from those who left," Tsarni shouted, delivering a message to his fugitive nephew. "He put a shame on our family. He put a shame on the entire Chechen enthnicity."
John Curran, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's former boxing coach, told ABC News that he was the New England champion for two or three years in a row and was considering turning pro. Curran said he had not been in contact with him since 2010.
Curran said that before the bombing he would have agreed with the portrayal of Tsarnaev as a peaceful, courteous young man.
"I would agree on all of those if I was asked two days before the bombing what I thought of this young man," Curran said. "I'd say he was a fine young man. Very good athlete. Very courteous. Just a nice guy. I'm shocked beyond belief he was involved in this."
Curran said Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an extrovert and his brother was an introvert.
Sierra Schwartz said she went to Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. She recognized him immediately when she saw his photo released by authorities.
"I was like, 'Wow, that looks just like Dzhokhar...," she said. She then noticed that his Facebook page had been deleted.
Schwartz knew he went to college, but did not remember where. She last saw him in Cambridge in the summer of 2011 before starting college. She was not aware that he had a brother.
"He was a great athlete. He did well. I think he won a scholarship for it," Schwartz said. "This is very unexpected....this is out of the ordinary. Completely shocking."
Schwartz is still reeling from the news that her former classmate is the most wanted person in America.
"When I woke up, it's like I'm living a nightmare right now. It can't be described," she said. "I just really hope they catch him."
"We all knew him for four years and that's something a lot of people can't say," she added.
The Monday bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured more than 170.
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