I think the Brown student's name was mentioned by police as one of the two suspects and it went from there. There's probably a lesson in public reaction to information from police scanners to be had.
Given that police mobilised near the suspects' apartment only around or after the time that their address was hitting social media, I suspect that at least in this case, many cops on the ground (and using their radios) were getting info at roughly the same pace as everyone else.
e.g., if there's an official statement, it will be a press briefing or designated as something official.
I haven't found the part of the police radio transcripts where he's mentioned ... was he specifically mentioned as a suspect or was his name simply mentioned on the radio (possibly because he's missing)?
While I suspect the Boston police department's number one priority is finding the marathon bombing suspects, wouldn't it be logical that their other cases would still be discussed?
EDIT: I agree with the premise of this thread ... it's interesting to watch the real-time parts of the case, but drawing conclusions should be:
The brown student's name was mentioned by a woman on twitter in response to looking at the released photos. Apparently it looked like a friend of hers that had gone missing a month prior after dropping out of school and becoming depressed. There were already a few articles about the missing person case, predating the bombing, and those were being linked by reporters in twitter feeds. The name mentioned on the police scanner was yet another person, also not correct.
Given that police mobilised near the suspects' apartment only around or after the time that their address was hitting social media, I suspect that at least in this case, many cops on the ground (and using their radios) were getting info at roughly the same pace as everyone else.
e.g., if there's an official statement, it will be a press briefing or designated as something official.