Boston bombingPolice captures second Boston suspect
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, was captured Friday evening. The 19-year old suspect was found, covered in blood, on a boat which was parked in the backyard of a house on Franklin Street in Watertown, covered with a tarp. The police used a robot to remove the tarp off the boat. After trying to negotiate with the suspect, a SWAT team stormed the boat and captured the suspect. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is listed in serious condition.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, was captured Friday evening. The 19-year old suspect was found, covered in blood, on a boat which was parked in the backyard of a house on Franklin Street in Watertown, covered with a tarp.
The owner of the house noticed blood on the tarp covering the boat and called the police.
Fox News reports that neighbors heard about thirty shots and a few explosions – probably of concussion grenades — as the police closed in on the boat.
CNN reports that a police robot was sent toward the boat and used its mechanical arm to remove the tarp off the boat. A police helicopter hovering above used thermal imaging sensors to locate the warm human body hiding under the boat.
The operation ended about 9:00 p.m. when the police took Tsarnaev to Massachusetts General Hospital.
Tsarnaev may have had more than one hiding place because sources told Fox News that the boat and the shed in which it was stored had been searched earlier in the day.
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said Tsarnaev was in serious condition and was found “covered with blood.” Davis said Tsarnaev did not come out from inside the boat willingly, despite the efforts of negotiators to end the incident peacefully.
“We assume that those injuries came from the gunfire the night before,” Davis said. Tsarnaev did not have any explosives with him when he was taken into custody.
The police noted that the backyard where the boat was stored was outside the tight security perimeter drawn by the police. Buildings within this perimeter were thoroughly searched door-to-door.
The Washington Post reports that federal officials said they intended to delay giving Tsarnaev his Miranda warning, which would advise him of his right to counsel and warning of self-incrimination. This temporary waiver of Miranda is possible because of an exemption for cases in which public safety is still at risk. Officials planned to question Tsarnaev about possible accomplices or other bombs before reading him the Miranda rights.
On Friday, the FBI confirmed that in 2011, at the request of Russia, FBI agents in Boston had interviewed the older Tsarnaev. The Russian government wanted to know more about Tsarnaev’s potential ties to Chechen Islamist terrorists. The FBI confirmed that after that interview, the agency did not follow Tamerlan Tsarnaev further.
