Boston police have identified Tamerlan Tsarnaev as the “black hat” bombing suspect, killed during the manhunt that followed.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev became a legal permanent resident, according to NBC, in 2007.
He died overnight in the firefight with police, suffering from “blast and potentially gunshot wounds …probably a blast injury [and] possibly shrapnel” throughout his trunk.
His brother, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, aged 19, is surviving Boston bomber, named Suspect 2 by police, who was seen on CCTV wearing a white baseball cap.
Freelance photographer Johannes Hirn made Tamerlan Tsarnaev the subject of a photo essay, titled Will Box for Passport, taken before the boxer competed at National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City. The captions give us a micro-profile of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
“Tamerlan, who studies at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and wants to become an engineer, took the semester off from school to train for the competition.
Tamerlan fled Chechnya with his family because of the conflict in the early 90s, and lived for years in Kazakhstan before getting to the United States as a refugee.
Originally from Chechnya, but living in the United States since five years, Tamerlan says: <<I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them.>>
If he wins enough fights… Tamerlan says he could be selected for the US Olympic team and be naturalized American. Unless his native Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia.
Tamerlan says he doesn’t drink or smoke anymore: <<God said no alcohol.>> A Muslim, he says: <<There are no values anymore>>, and worries that <<people can’t control themselves>>.”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested for domestic assault and battery in 2009 after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, according to police records. A YouTube account linked with his Google Plus profile is focused on videos about Islam.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a competitive boxer for a club named Team Lowell, who won the Rocky Marciano Trophy for being New England Golden Gloves heavyweight champion in 2010. He did this while taking time off from school at Bunker Hill Community College, where he studied in hopes of being an engineer. He’s been boxing in the US since at least 2004, and his uncle told WBZ in Boston that he arrived in the United States in 2000 under refugee status.
The Lowell Sun wrote this about his bout at the Golden Gloves nationals in 2009: “In Team New England’s last bout of the night, Tamerlan Tsarnaev dropped a controversial decision to Lamar Fenner of Chicago in the 201-pound devision.
“After flooring Fenner with a huge punch that required an eight count, it seemed that Tsarnaev was in control of the whole fight.
“Yet somehow the judges saw it differently and awarded Fenner the decision, a decision that drew boos from the crowd.
“Team New England finished the first day of action with two wins and two losses.”
Johannes Hirn photo gallery features Tamerlan Tsarnaev’ss girlfriend at the time, and the caption reads:
“Tamerlan says his girlfriend is half Portuguese, half Italian girlfriend and converted to Islam: <<She’s beautiful, man!>>”
Other photo captions in the gallery:
“Tamerlan demonstrates a way of walking to strengthen the ankle muscles at the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center. A native of Chechnya, Tamerlan says: <<In Russia, we used to train like this. Here nobody does it, I don’t know why!>>.
“Tamerlan says he loves the movie “Borat,” even though some of the jokes are a bit too much.”
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