Friday, April 19, 2013

Boston bomber's father says his son is 'a true angel'

 

Published on HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com (http://hamptonroads.com)

Boston suspect's father says his son is 'a true angel'

MAKHACHKALA, Russia

In an anguished interview, the father of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing described his fugitive son as a smart and accomplished "angel."

Anzor Tsarnaev spoke with The Associated Press by telephone from the southern Russian republic of Dagestan after police said one of his sons, 26-year-old Tamerlan, had been killed in a shootout and the other, Dzhokhar, was being intensely pursued.

"My son is a true angel," the elder Tsarnaev said. He said his son was "an intelligent boy" who was studying medicine.

"We expected him to come on holidays here," he said.

"They were set up, they were set up!" he exclaimed. "I saw it on television; they killed my older son Tamerlan."

Tsarnaev, badly agitated, gave little more information and ended the call angrily, saying, "Leave me alone, my son's been killed."

The family's origins are in Chechnya, the mostly Muslim Russian republic where separatist rebels have fought two full-scale wars with Russian forces since 1994.

A spokesman for Chechnya's leader said the family left Chechnya long ago and went to Central Asia, then moved to Dagestan, a Muslim republic adjacent to Chechnya that has been the site of a sporadic insurgency for more than a decade.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended School No. 1 in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The principal's secretary at School No. 1, Irina Bandurina, told the AP that Tsarnaev left for the U.S. in March 2002.

____

Dzhokhar awarded scholarship from Cambridge

In May of 2011, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, then a senior at a prestigious high school, was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge, Mass., to pursue higher education. Now, Tsarnaev is on the run, described as "armed and dangerous" and suspected of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Two brothers, one now dead, one alive and at large. After hours of only grainy images of two men in baseball caps to go on, a portrait gradually started emerging Friday of the men suspected in the attack.

Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a violent night in Cambridge, had been living together on Norfolk Street in Cambridge. An uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., told The Associated Press that the men lived together near Boston and have been in the United States for about a decade.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's page on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte says he attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, graduating in 2011, the year he won the scholarship, which was celebrated with a reception at City Hall, according to a news release issued at the time.

On the site, he describes himself as speaking Chechen as well as English and Russian. His world view is described as "Islam" and he says his personal goal is "career and money."

Tsarnaev appeared in the video released by authorities on Thursday, identified as Suspect Number 2, striding down a sidewalk, unnoticed by spectators who were absorbed in the race. He followed Tamerlan by about 10 feet. He wore what appeared to be a gray hoodie under a dark jacket and pants, and a white baseball cap facing backward and pulled down haphazardly.

Tamerlan was stockier, in khaki pants, a light T-shirt, and a dark jacket. The brim of his baseball cap faced forward, and he may have been wearing sunglasses.

According to the website spotcrime.com, Tamerlan was arrested for domestic violence in July 2009, after assaulting his girlfriend.

He was an amateur boxer, listed as a competitor in a National Golden Gloves competition in 2009.

____

Suspects studied at community college, UMass Dartmouth

The Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed overnight had studied accounting as a part-time community college student.

Bunker Hill Community College officials say that 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a student there for three semesters: fall 2006, spring 2007 and fall 2008.

Spokeswoman Patricia Brady said Friday they had little information on Tsarnaev other than that he studied accounting at the Boston school.

Tsarnaev had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 and was seen in surveillance footage in a black baseball cap.

The other suspect is his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar. He was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

UMass Dartmouth has closed campus and ordered an evacuation after confirming that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is registered there.

The school did not say what Tsarnaev is studying or whether he had lived on campus.

School officials say they closed the campus "out of an abundance of caution."

Student Brie McCarron tells The Associated Press that police and SWAT teams descended on campus. She said students who know Tsarnaev said he lives in a dormitory.

"Everyone is freaking out," she said.

Dartmouth is about 65 miles south of the area where authorities are searching for Tsarnaev.

____

Police find SUV believed linked to Boston suspect

Connecticut State Police say a vehicle believed to be linked to a wanted Boston Marathon bombing suspect has been recovered.

Police said in a news release Friday that a gray Honda CRV with Massachusetts plates was found in Boston. Authorities had said earlier that the vehicle "could possibly be occupied by" the suspect wanted in the Boston attacks, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The news release provided scant other details about the vehicle.


Source URL (retrieved on 04/19/2013 - 12:57): http://hamptonroads.com/2013/04/boston-suspects-father-says-his-son-true-angel

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment