Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in serious but stable condition and unable to speak with throat wound, doctors say
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been hospitalized in serious but stable condition after his arrest in Watertown and officials say he cannot speak to investigators yet because he has been “intubated and sedated” with a throat wound.
Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was found bleeding heavily from gunshot wounds to his neck and foot from the shoot-out on Friday morning, which he escaped on foot before taking up his hiding place in David Henneberry’s backyard boat in Watertown.
The blood loss would have taken place over more than 20 hours by the time he was found and there were reports, which could not be confirmed, that he may have been shot a further two times last night.
“He had lost a lot of blood. He was so weak that we were able to just go in and scoop him up,” state police spokesman David Procopio told the Boston Herald adding that the suspect was in “serious if not critical condition”.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was rushed from the scene by ambulance and images showed apparatus being used to help him breathe.
As the suspect receives treatment at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, law enforcement officials have revealed that he injured his throat in the standoff with police and may not be able to speak.
The medical facility where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a patient is under heavy armed guard and federal prosecutors are standing by at the center for when the teenager is able to speak.
Victims who were injured in the deadly blast at the Boston Marathon on Monday are also among those being treated at the medical center, which has some families angry about the close proximity to the alleged mastermind.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being treated in a room yards from where 11 injured marathon victims are still in recovery while a specially drawn up High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group wait anxiously to question him.