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The family of Chinese graduate student Lu Lingzi, 23, attended a memorial service at Boston University for their daughter, who was killed in the Boston Marathon attack.
Hundreds of people, including state Governor Deval Patrick, joined Lu Lingzi’s father and her aunt who had travelled from Shenyang, China, to repatriate their daughter’s remains.
The family of Chinese graduate student Lu Lingzi attended a memorial service at Boston University for their daughter
“She’s gone but our memories of her are very much alive,” said her father, Lu Jun, who spoke in his native tongue and was followed by an English interpreter.
“An ancient Chinese saying says every child is actually a little Buddha that helps their parents mature and grow up.”
Lu Lingzi was the family’s only child.
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The Boston Marathon bombing on April 15 killed three and injured more than 200, 48 of whom were still in hospital, three in a critical condition, according to Reuters.
At least 14 people lost all or part of a limb and three of them lost more than one.
Doctors say every one of the people injured in the Boston Marathon blasts who made it to a hospital alive now seem likely to survive.
On Saturday estimates of the injured jumped from 180 to 264 as people with delayed health issues arrived at hospital.
Nick Martin, a spokesman for the health commission, explained the sudden jump across 26 hospitals.
The Boston Marathon bombing on April 15 killed three and injured more than 200, 48 of whom were still in hospital, three in a critical condition
“One of the best examples is hearing issues,” Nick Martin said.
“People might have first thought their hearing problems would be temporary.”
Others sought delayed care for minor shrapnel wounds.
The injured include several people who arrived with legs attached by just a little skin, a 3-year-old boy with a head wound and bleeding on the brain, and a little girl riddled with nails.
Even a transit system police officer whose heart had stopped and was close to bleeding to death after a shoot-out with the suspects now appears headed for recovery.
Three people died in the terror attack at the Boston Marathon finish line: Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbel, 29, and Lu Lingzi, 23.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, could be jailed if she returns to the US to see her hospitalized son, it has been revealed.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, 45, now lives in Dagestan, Russia
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a gunbattle with cops on Friday. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is in fair condition in a Boston hospital where he is being treated for injuries sustained in the same shootout.
ABC News reported on Tuesday that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva failed to show up at a court hearing stemming from a July 2012 arrest for shoplifting.
So if she returns to the US to visit her hospitalized son Dzhokhar or make burial arrangements for Tamerlan, she could be arrested on an outstanding warrant.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva allegedly stole $1,600 worth of clothes from a Massachusetts Lord & Taylor store.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, could be jailed if she returns to the US to see her hospitalized son
She was charged with two counts of malicious/wanton damage and defacement to property after allegedly swiping the merchandise from the retailer’s Natick, Massachusetts location in June 2012.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was due in court on October 25 last year for a hearing in the case, but never showed up.
The Lord & Taylor location is not the same as the one on Boyleston Street in Boston, where a surveillance camera captured what police say is her younger son dropping a pressure cooker bomb that was hidden inside a backpack.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva additionally faces questioning by US investigators, who have traveled to Dagestan to speak with her.
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No one has come forward to claim Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s dead body, it has been revealed, as investigators continue to piece together his movements prior to the Boston Marathon attack.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was shot during a dramatic gunbattle with cops in Watertown, Massachusetts on Friday, before police said he was run over by his younger brother Dzhokhar as he tried to escape.
No one has come forward to claim Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s dead body
He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
ABC News reported that so far, neither his wife – Katherine Russell Tsarnaev – nor other family members have claimed Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body for burial.
Katherine Russell was 21 when she converted to Islam and married Tamerlan Tsarnaev. After marrying, she left Suffolk University without graduating.
They had a daughter, Zahara, now 3. Tamerlan Tsarnaev seems never to have found a full-time career. His family members say Katherine Russell supported him, while he stayed home with the child.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the neck in the hospital, has told investigators that his older brother was the ringleader in the Boston Marathon attacks.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apparently used an online magazine produced by al-Qaeda as their guide for how to make pressure cooker bombs that they set off at the finish line of last week’s Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 180 others.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, reportedly confessed to the FBI that he and his brother Tamerlan were the ones behind the bombing and that they acted alone.
The Boston bomber also said that they were driven to commit the attack because of their feelings against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev used an al-Qaeda online magazine to make pressure cooker bombs they set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in a Boston hospital but he is expected to be transported in the next few days as his condition was downgraded from “serious” to “fair”.
The suspect sustained unspecified damages during the course of the last week, most likely from the firefight with police on Friday morning that led to the death of his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is reportedly telling investigators that the deadly attacks were spearheaded by his brother, Tamerlan, who is thought to be the more radical of the two.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a 26-year-old father of one, allegedly went through fits of rage, both verbally and physically abusing his wife who he called a “slut” and a “prostitute”.
Federal investigators have already questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife, 24-year-old Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and the brothers’ parents, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and Anzor Tsarnaev, are thought to be on their way to America for questioning from their native Russia.
It was revealed earlier today that no relatives have claimed Tamerlan Tamerlan’s body.
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David Henneberry, the man who discovered Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding out inside his boat, got choked up when talking about the victims of the deadly blasts.
David Henneberry, 66, dismisses claims that he is a national hero, saying that if anything, he is an “incidental hero”.
“It makes me feel wonderful that people that are thinking like that, but it is my boat. People lost lives and lost limbs,” David Henneberry told local station WCVB.
David Henneberry’s role in the saga came when he walked outside of his Watertown home early Friday evening after the shelter-in-place order was lifted in Boston, and the first place he went was to check his boat, that he calls “my baby”.
Earlier in the day, when he was still indoors, David Henneberry noticed that two of the pads that he puts in between the shrink wrap and his boat in order to prevent chaffing had fallen out of place.
“It was really windy, so I didn’t think twice about it,” he said.
David Henneberry dismisses claims that he is a national hero, saying that if anything, he is an incidental hero
As he tells it, David Henneberry was not expecting to find anything out of the ordinary when he went to adjust the pads.
“Go out and get some air. I am just going to put the pads back. They were bugging me all day. So I went out in the yard and felt the freedom that everyone is Watertown was feeling. When I pulled the strap, it was a lot looser than it usually is. But again, the wind could have loosened things up,” he told WCVB.
Even when he saw “a good amount” of blood on the inside of the cabin, he initially doubted himself, thinking back to whether he had accidentally been cut when he was inside the boat weeks earlier.
“And I looked back and forth a couple of times and my eyes went to the engine block and there was a body,” David Henneberry said.
He then ran back to his house and called the police, who immediately took over the scene. David Henneberry and his wife remain displaced from their home as investigators continue to comb over the boat and the property for clues.
“We had great sight and cover on what we had in the boat,” Boston Police Superintendant William Evans said in a Tuesday evening press conference.
“It was just a matter of holding until the tactical team came in to get him out.”
Police did in fact find the second bombing suspect inside the boat, ironically named the “Slip Away II”.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was taken into police custody and transported to Beth Israel Hospital for treatment from various wounds likely sustained from the early Friday morning altercation with police, where his older brother Tamerlan was killed.
“Slip Away is slipping away. But I say it did its job. It held a bad guy and is going away like a Viking ship,” David Henneberry said to WCVB.
He also said that he is aware of a social media campaign where supporters are raising money to buy him a new boat after his was damaged in the apprehension of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Instead, David Henneberry wants people to donate to a fund set up for those who were injured in last Monday’s bombing.
“I am lucky I am alive. These other people were killed. Sometimes, I just sit and say, <<Wow>>,” David Henneberry said.
“This hits you more afterwards when you think <<My God, we probably slept last night, this guy could be in the (boat)>>… It’s surreal.”
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Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the Boston bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, watches the video of her dead son’s mutilated body and cries, her lawyer revealed on Tuesday, after it emerged that she is to be questioned by US investigators.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva appeared publicly outside her home for the first time since her sons Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were named as suspects. She was ushered past journalists and into a taxi, which sped away.
US investigators traveled to southern Russia today to speak to Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and her husband Anzor Tsarnaev, an American Embassy official said.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim province in Russia’s Caucasus, where Islamic militants have waged an insurgency against Russian security sources for years.
The family’s lawyer Heda Saratova, asked for the family to be left alone and said that the parents had just seen pictures of the mutilated body of their elder son Tamerlan Tsarnaev and were not up to speaking with anyone at the moment.
“The mother is in very bad shape,” Heda Saratova said.
“She watches the video [of Tamerlan Tsarnaev] and cries.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva appeared publicly outside her home in Dagestan for the first time since her sons Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were named as suspects
The trip by the US team was made possible because of Russian government cooperation with the FBI investigation into the bombing at the Boston Marathon.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are accused of setting off the bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 180 others on April 15.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a police shootout, while his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar was captured alive but badly wounded.
The embassy official said he could not confirm whether the US investigators had already talked to the suspects’ parents.
“Naturally, the parents are not ready to meet with anyone because the grief is enormous,” Russian official Zaurbek Sadakhanov told a crowd of journalist in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.
“They … are asking to be left alone, at least for a while, to be able to recover.
“As to the case, I think that detectives and policemen in the United States are knowledgeable and will find out what happened in an objective and unbiased way.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is from Dagestan, while the suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev is from neighboring Chechnya.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had spent little time in either place before the family moved to the US a decade ago, but Tamerlan was in Russia for six months last year.
The father of the two Boston bombing suspects will apparently travel to the US later this week in order to seek “justice and the truth.
Anzor Tsarnaev says he has “lots of questions for the police” and is keen ‘to clear up many things’”when he arrives from his home in Makhachkala in Russia.
He had previously said that he would return to America this week in the wake of the death of his elder son Tamerlan and the arrest of 19-year-old Dzhokhar.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva added that the family hoped to bring Tamerlan’s body back to Russia.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators that his brother Tamerlan orchestrated the Boston Marathon attacks because he “wanted to defend Islam from attack”, it emerged today.
In scrawled notes made from his hospital bed, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, told Guantanamo Bay interrogators that Tamerlan, 26, was motivated by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and his belief that they represented an assault on his faith, according to reports.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators that he and his brother were not linked to any Islamic terrorist groups. Instead, authorities believe Tamerlan Tsarnaev “self-radicalized” by watching online videos of extremist Muslim preachers.
According to CNN, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said Tamerlan was the ringleader in the Boston attacks that shook the nation a week ago, but that the pair were working alone.
In preliminary interviews with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the terror suspect said his brother “wanted to defend Islam from attack”, a source told CNN.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators that his brother Tamerlan orchestrated the Boston Marathon attacks because he wanted to defend Islam from attack
The Washington Post reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev believed he had to defend his faith because the US had waged war against Islam in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Two US officials said last night the evidence from the bedside interrogation suggests the terror suspects did not have any accomplices, despite previous fears they were part of a 12-man terror “sleeper cell”.
TamerlanTsarnaev died in a police shootout on Friday.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was formally charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction after being questioned by federal officials in his hospital room where he is recovering from multiple injuries.
He could face a death sentence, despite the fact Massachusetts has no death penalty, as he is being prosecuted under the federal system.
A probably cause hearing has been scheduled for May 30.
Investigators have been quizzing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev about whether there were more bombs, explosives or weapons beyond the ones already uncovered by police as well as who came up with the plot.
Interrogators are questioning Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in his room every few hours as doctors sit by his bedside, CNN reported.
The suspect is reportedly unable to speak because of a gunshot wound to the throat.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is believed to be communicating in writing to a special team of FBI counter-terrorism agents trained in interrogating “high-value” detainees that were sent to his bedside at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Eight days after 8-year-old Martin Richard was killed in the Boston Marathon attack, his family still has an anxious wait for news on his little sister, Jane, who has lost a leg and remains in a critical condition, it has emerged today.
Jane Richard, 7, is believed to have been standing on the marathon fence next to the big brother she idolized when Monday’s blast took place.
Father Bill and mother Denise – who also suffered head injuries – are having to remain strong for Jane, who is fighting “multiple injuries” from the terror attack after losing a leg.
Bill and Denise Richard buried their second oldest son, Martin, in a private funeral today while Jane remains hospitalized.
“The outpouring of love and support over the last week has been tremendous. This has been the most difficult week of our lives and we appreciate that our friends and family have given us space to grieve and heal,” Bill and Denise Richard said in a statement.
“A private Funeral Mass was celebrated this morning with immediate family. We laid our son Martin to rest, and he is now at peace. We plan to have a public memorial service in the coming weeks to allow friends and loved ones from our community to join us for a celebration of Martin’s life.”
Jane Richard is an enthusiastic Irish dancer having attended classes at the Clifden Academy of Irish Dance in Milton since the age of three.
Several Irish dance groups are now raising money to support her.
Jane Richard, 7, an enthusiastic Irish dancer, is fighting “multiple injuries” from the Boston Marathon attack after losing a leg
“She is just a beautiful little girl. We taught her since she was a baby, pointing her little toe,” Eileen Dillon Dinn, owner of the Clifton Academy, told the Irish Voice.
“We are just in a state of shock and disbelief. The Richard family is lovely. They went to the marathon as a happy family, and then this happened. We don’t know what to say.”
Jane Richard loved to learn all the new moves at the academy, according to her teacher, and was on the sidelines at the recent Irish World Dance Championships in Boston dreaming that someday she would get the chance to compete.
“She’s a beauty, always smiling,” said Dillon Dinn.
“Jane really lives to dance.”
Jane Richard’s eldest brother Henry, 12, and father Bill managed to escape from the bomb attack uninjured.
Images from the scene appear to show Bill Richard, 42, a community organizer, holding his youngest children up on the railings as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev plants his backpack bomb just behind them.
It isn’t clear whether any of the women in the photograph is the children’s mother, school librarian Denise Richard, 43, who sustained head injuries and had to undergo brain surgery following the attack.
A spokesman for the family said he was unable to confirm the identities of those in the marathon image or provide an update for Jane Richard’s condition given she is under a privacy order.
The Children’s Hospital of Boston did not identify the 7 year-old girl they said was still in a critical condition.
However, previous reports of the injured suggest that Jane Richard is the only one of 11 or so youngsters injured in the terror attacks that fits the sparse description.
The family were watching elated runners cross the finish line on Monday.
Bill Richard is a former marathon runner himself so the young family liked to support other participants in the event, according to friends of the family.
Neighbors said Jane Richard looked up to her older brother, Martin, and they both attended the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester, where their mother served as the school librarian.
Tracey Monroe, a bystander who came to Jane Richard’s aid in the moments after the blast, told WCVB.com: “I saw her laying in the street. I held her head in my hands and I tried to rub her and comfort her. I asked what her name was and she said Jane.
“She was just a baby and so badly injured and scared. But she was so incredibly brave. I saw him [Martin Richard] and at that point I knew he was gone. I’ll never forget them – that little girl, she was so brave.”
The bombs, described by experts as makeshift anti-personnel devices, were made from pressure cookers packed with shrapnel and ball bearings to cause the maximum injuries to those caught in the blast.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose older brother and suspected accomplice Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in the manhunt to track the bombers down, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction against persons or property.
The Boston Marathon bombing killed three and injured more than 200, 48 of whom were still in hospital today, three in a critical condition, according to Reuters.
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It appears Tamerlan Tsarnaev displayed a disturbing pattern of verbal abuse and violence toward women that included fits of rage against his wife Katherine Russell and an arrest in 2009 for slapping ex-girlfriend Nadine Ascencao, according to police records and accounts from those who knew him.
Close friends of his wife Katherine Russell, 24, claimed today that Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was combative, angry and controlling.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev hasn’t spoken publicly about her husband since he was killed in a shootout with police in Watertown early Friday morning. But it appears she spoke to federal authorities for the first time on Tuesday, after she was spotted leaving her Rhode Island family home with her lawyer and three federal investigators. She returned home nearly four hours later with her mother.
Afterwards, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s lawyers released a statement at her request that claimed she has been “doing everything she can to assist with the investigation”.
“The injuries and loss of life – to people who came to celebrate a race and a holiday – has caused profound distress and sorrow to Katie and her family,” the statement read.
“The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all.”
Three of Katherine Russell’s friends told National Public Radio’s Laura Sullivan that Tamerlan Tsarnaev would often insult Katherine and call her names, such as “slut” and “prostitute”.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was known to fly into fits of rage where he would throw objects, including furniture, friends said.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s lawyer, Amato DeLuca, said she was a student at Suffolk University when she was introduced to Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a nightclub. He didn’t specify the exact date that they met, though it’s believed to be sometime during 2009.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev often insulted wife Katherine Russell calling her a slut and a prostitute
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was seeing another woman at the time, he said.
“They went out for a while, and then they stopped and then they went out again,” Amato DeLuca said.
It’s possible the other woman that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was apparently dating was 25-year-old Nadine Ascencao of Brookline, Massachusetts.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested in July 2009 for allegedly slapping Nadine Ascencao, according to court records.
Nadine Ascencao was “crying hysterically” and called 911 to report that she was “beat up by her boyfriend”, Cambridge Police Officer Angela Pereira wrote in the arrest report.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev told Angela Pereira and another officer that his girlfriend “was yelling at him because of another girl”.
Asked whether he had hit Nadine Ascencao, Tamerlan Tsarnaev stated: “Yes, I slapped her.”
He specifically stated that he struck the left side of her face.
Eleven months later, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was apparently no longer dating Nadine Ascencao. He had persuaded Katherine Russell to convert from Christianity to Islam and the couple married on June 21, 2010.
Around the same time, Katherine Russell became pregnant with Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s baby.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev dropped out of school in her senior year and reportedly began pulling away from her friends and family.
Mary Silberman, whose apartment backs up to Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Cambridge home, said she often heard loud arguments late at night that mostly consisted of a woman’s voice yelling at a man.
“It wasn’t enough to call the police,” Mary Silberman told Reuters.
“It didn’t sound like anyone was in physical danger.”
But the shouting was often loud enough to keep her awake at night. Mary Silberman could also hear the couple’s daughter, Zahara, now 3-year-old, wailing at night and she often wondered why the mother wasn’t responding, she said.
As the girl grew into a toddler, Mary Silberman said she would see Zahara staring out the window.
Since Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s death, Katherine Russell has been staying with her family in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Her lawyer, Amato DeLuca, told CNN on Monday that the 24-year-old is “very distraught” and “cries a lot”.
Regarding the bomb plot, Amato DeLuca said: “She knew nothing about it at any time.”
“The whole family is a mess, to put it bluntly,” lawyer said.
“They’re very distraught. They’re upset. Their lives have been unalterably changed. They’re upset because of what happened, the people that were injured, that were killed. It’s an awful, terrible thing.”
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev works 70 to 80 hours a week as a home health aide, according to family members. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was unemployed.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s lawyers released this statement on Tuesday morning at Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow request:
“As you know from news reports, Katie married her husband in June of 2010. Since then, she has been living in Cambridge, raising her child and working long hours, caring for people in their homes who are unable to care for themselves.
“Katie grew up in Rhode Island and has always remained close to her parents and sisters here, as well as her extended family.
Katherine Russell married Tamerlan Tsarnaev in June 2010
“She is fortunate to have the support of her loving family now, as they, too, struggle to come to terms with these events and the deep sorrow we all feel following the events of last week.
“Meanwhile, she is doing everything she can to assist with the investigation.
“The injuries and loss of life – to people who came to celebrate a race and a holiday – has caused profound distress and sorrow to Katie and her family.
“The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all.
“As a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, Katie deeply mourns the pain and loss to innocent victims – students, law enforcement, families and our community. In the aftermath of this tragedy, she, her daughter and her family are trying to come to terms with these events.”
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Nadine Ascencao, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s ex-girlfriend, has revealed the Boston bomber once slapped her and he always acted like a “bully” and a “tough guy” at high school but appeared harmless.
Nadine Ascencao, 25, has spoken out about her relationship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who allegedly planted two bombs at the Boston Marathon last week, killing three people and injuring more than 180.
Despite this heinous crime and a disturbing pattern of verbal and physical abuse towards women, Nadine Ascencao has claimed Tamerlan Tsarnaev she once lived with did not appear to be capable of “anything major”.
“He was a little tough guy, but I thought that was it,” Nadine Ascencao told the Wall Street Journal.
“In high school, everybody acts like that. Like a bully guy, you know?”
“He was just like a normal person that sometimes like wanted to scare kids in high school but that was it…. He was a little tough guy, but I thought that was it.”
Despite her claims, Nadine Ascencao was once allegedly the victim of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s temper; police records show she was the woman who accused him of slapping her on July 28, 2009, The Journal reported.
Nadine Ascencao refused to speak to The Journal about the incident, but records show she told police Tamerlan Tsarnaev had slapped her in the face during an argument over another woman at his home in Cambridge.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his ex-girlfriend Nadine Ascencao
She was “crying hysterically” and called 911 to report that she was “beat up by her boyfriend”, Cambridge Police Officer Angela Pereira wrote in the arrest report.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev admitted to slapping Nadine Ascencao and was arrested on charges of assault and battery, the complaint said. The charges were dismissed before trial.
While Nadine Ascencao would not say when she dated Tamerlan Tsarnaev or for how long, records also show they lived together for a short time at an apartment on Norfolk Street.
Nadine Ascencao added to The Journal that she was “disgusted” by his alleged part in the deadly bombings.
When she learned Tamerlan Tsarnaev had died: “I didn’t even cry or anything,” Nadine Ascencao said.
Nadine Ascencao’s neighbors said FBI agents visited her home early on Friday morning to clarify the relationship she had with him. The agents left three hours later and briefly returned in the afternoon.
Around 11 months after the alleged slapping incident, Tamerlan Tsarnaev married his wife, Katherine Russell.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev has not spoken publicly since Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s death early Friday in a shootout with police.
But three of Katherine Russell’s friends told National Public Radio’s Laura Sullivan that Tamerlan Tsarnaev would often insult Katherine and call her names, such as “slut” and “prostitute”.
He was known to fly into into fits of rage where he would throw objects at Russell, including furniture, friends said.
Sometime around 2008, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s erratic and violent behavior escalated as he stopped smoking and drinking and suddenly became heavily involved in Islam. Also around that time, he demanded that Katherine Russell, born a Christian, convert to Islam – and she complied.
Despite their tumultuous, on-again, off-again relationship, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Katherine Russell married on June 21, 2010.
The FBI is to face questions in the US Congress over whether they mishandled information about Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The security officials will brief the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed hearing, after some lawmakers accused the FBI of failing to act on Russian concerns.
Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was questioned in 2011 amid claims he had adopted radical Islam.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a manhunt after the attack but his wounded brother Dzhokhar has been charged over the bombings.
Federal prosecutors charged Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in hospital with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. He could be sentenced to death if convicted on either count.
Anonymous officials have told US media that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said he and his brother had planned the attack themselves without help from foreign militants.
The officials say his written answers from his hospital bed to investigators’ questions lead them to believe that the Tsarnaev brothers were motivated by jihadist ideology and that they devised the bombings using the internet.
However, the sources also said the interviews were preliminary and they must verify the defendant’s responses.
The FBI is to face questions in the US Congress over whether they mishandled information about Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Both Tsarnaev brothers had origins in the troubled, predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya in southern Russia. They had been living in the US for about a decade at the time of the attack.
The twin bombs which exploded near the finishing line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured more than 200.
Of those injured, 13 lost limbs. More than 50 people remain in hospital, three of them in a critical condition.
Members of Congress want to know why no further action was taken after Tamerlan Tsarnaev was investigated in 2011 at the request of the Russian government.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the intelligence committee, said that she and her colleagues would have to “sort it out” when they met FBI officials later on Tuesday.
The full Senate is expected to receive a briefing later in the week.
The FBI has defended itself, saying in a statement on Friday that it had run checks on the suspect but found no evidence of terrorist activity.
A request to Russia for further information to justify more rigorous checks went unanswered, and an interview by agents with Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his family also revealed nothing suspicious.
However, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham questioned why the FBI was unable to identify him as a threat based on his alleged links to radical websites.
He called for better co-operation with Russia and the amendment of privacy laws to allow closer scrutiny of suspects’ internet activity.
Senator Lindsey Graham added that the US authorities did not know Tamerlan Tsarnaev had gone to Russia in 2012 because his name was misspelled in travel documents.
The suspect spent six months in Dagestan, another mainly Muslim Russian republic bordering Chechnya. During the visit, he also reportedly spent two days in Chechnya itself.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during the police manhunt last Friday. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was captured later that day and remains in hospital with serious injuries.
A 10-page criminal complaint was filed against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Monday during a court hearing held around his hospital bed.
According to a transcript of the hearing, he managed to speak once despite a gunshot wound to his throat sustained during his capture.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said the word “no” when asked if he could afford a lawyer. Otherwise he nodded in response to Judge Marianne Bowler’s questions from his bed at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The next hearing in his case has been scheduled for the end of May.
The complaint seeks to locate both suspects at the scene of the bombing and then pieces together the operation to intercept them three days later, as they allegedly drove a hijacked car near the city, hours after images of their faces were broadcast by the media.
No mention is made of their possible reasons for attacking the marathon.
US Congress questions for the FBI:
- Why was no further action taken after the 2011 investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev?
- Why Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not identified as a threat based on links to radical websites?
- Why were the authorities unaware of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s visit to Russia in 2012?
Boston SWAT officers who handcuffed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev say that they didn’t “have time to be afraid” as they inched toward his hiding spot on Friday.
The SWAT officers from the MBTA held a press conference on Monday, as they were officially recognized for their efforts in taking down Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after an all-day manhunt in Watertown.
Watertown was gripped with fear as the sun went down on Friday, when pops of gunfire and the booms of flash grenades were heard – all focused on a boat parked in a Franklin Street driveway.
The well-trained SWAT team then approached David Henneberry’s boat, not knowing whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was armed or had rigged the vessel with the same bombs he allegedly used in the attack at the marathon days prior.
SWAT Officer Jeff Campbell – who pulled Dzhokhar Tsarnaev off the boat – noted how the officers had proceeded carefully, saying: “We had no idea if the boat was rigged with explosives. He could have done anything.”
The officers admitted that they were sitting ducks – out in the open in the backyard as they moved in.
Jeff Campbell told former FBI assistant director John Miller in a CBS interview airing on Tuesday: “As we’re approaching what we call the danger zone… That’s the danger zone because there’s no cover for us except that ballistic shield.”
But as they got closer, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suddenly stood up in the boat, acknowledging that he was ready to surrender.
Officer Jeff Campbell noted that the suspect “looked weak” and was “shaky”.
Boston SWAT officers who handcuffed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at his hiding spot on Friday
He told John Miller: “[Dzhokhar Tsarnaev] appeared to be losing consciousness and did have some wounds to his body. You could see the blood on his body.”
Once the suspect was off the boat, Officer Saro Thompson said: “Officer [Kenny] Tran helped me secure the suspect along with other people from different teams that we do not know the names of.”
Sgt. Sean Reynolds, who is also part of the team, told reporters: “You don’t really have time to be afraid.”
Officer Saro Thompson added: “At a time like that, training kicks in. We don’t have emotion going into something like that.
“We ended up putting him in cuffs and we turned him over to the medics after we moved him away from the boat.”
When asked if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev spoke as he was arrested, Saro Thompson said: “I don’t think he had the energy to say anything. Once we got him on the ground, he was compliant and was going in and out of consciousness.”
One of their colleagues, transit police officer Richard H. Donahue, 33, was seriously injured during the wild shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers early on Friday morning.
Officer Saro Thompson said that when he visited Richard H. Donahue in the hospital on Monday, he proudly informed him: “We got him.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s older brother Tamerlan died in a hospital after that confrontation, likely from injuries sustained when he was run over by a stolen vehicle driven by Dzhokhar.
The interview with the SWAT officers came after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was read his Miranda Rights on Monday as he was charged with using weapons of mass destruction during an arraignment while he laid in his hospital bed.
During the proceedings in his Boston hospital bed, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev only uttered the word “no” when asked if he could afford a defense attorney.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was arraigned in his hospital bed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Monday by a magistrate judge, court officials said.
A probable cause hearing in the case was then set for May 30.
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Two North African suspects thought to be linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have been arrested in Spain, according to police.
An Algerian identified as Nou Mediouni was arrested in Zaragoza, northern Spain, the interior ministry said.
The other suspect, a Moroccan named Hassan El Jaaouani, was arrested in Murcia in the south.
Two North African suspects thought to be linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have been arrested in Spain
They have “a similar profile to the two suspects who carried out the Boston attacks”, the ministry said. French police had helped to track them down.
AQIM is among several Islamist groups fighting French and West African troops in Mali.
It has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the early 1990s, but in 2007 it emerged as an international jihadist group linked to Osama Bin Laden’s network. AQIM says its aim is to spread Islamic law and it is known for kidnapping Westerners and extracting ransoms.
It is not clear whether the men arrested in Spain are suspected of planning any attacks. Their similarity to the Boston marathon bombers was not explained in the ministry statement.
Moroccan Islamists linked to al-Qaeda were found guilty of the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 1,800.
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Thousands of well-wishers witnessed an honor guard of firefighters standing to attention to salute pallbearers carrying Boston Marathon attack victim Krystle Campbell’s casket into church today.
The line outside St. Joseph Church on Monday for the 11 a.m. funeral of 29-year-old Krystle Campbell stretched down the block as 23 officers on motorbikes joined the procession.
Krystle Campbell was one of three people killed near the Boston marathon finish line on April 15. The restaurant manager had gone to watch a friend finish the race.
In addition to the mourners, union members and a local motorcycle club showed up to stop a church group from disrupting the funeral.
Teamsters Local 25 President Sean O’Brien says the union members planned to stand in front of protesters to block them from the Campbell family’s view.
The Westboro Baptist Church, whose members are known for protesting outside soldiers’ funerals with anti-gay messages, issued a statement on Saturday vowing to protest Krystle Campbell’s funeral.
Mourners made up a quarter-mile long parade to say goodbye to Krystle Campbell – who was killed as a result of the deadly Boston bombings.
Different pictures of Krystle Campbell, some of her wearing a Red Sox shirt, some of her at her high school graduation and some as a child at her communion were pleaded on a slide-show loop.
The Lumineers’ hit Ho Hey was played as mourners, family and friends walked past her open brown casket.
Firefighters honor guard salute as pallbearers carry the casket of Boston Marathon bomb victim Krystle Campbell into St Joseph’s Church for her funeral in Medford
Krystal Campbell’s heartbroken mother Patty Campbell, who memorably declared: “It doesn’t make sense” after learning of her daughter’s death, bravely attended the service today.
Speaking to and hugging as many mourners as she could meet, Patty Campbell drove away from the church in tears.
Krystle Campbell’s parents were too upset to speak at any point during the funeral, so pastor Chip Hines spoke for them during the service, saying: “Krystle was always there for people.”
Cardinal O’Malley said the final prayer, said parishoner Phyllis Patten.
The hour long funeral service ended with a choir singing a proud version of God Bless America.
Some in the crowd outside St. Joseph’s Church in Medford said they had driven as far as 100 miles to attend the funeral, where officials including Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick were in attendance.
As she waited for the funeral, Renee Arsenault, a 28-year-old hairdresser, said she had gone to middle school with Krystle Campbell.
“I am so happy this many people showed up in her honor,” Renee Arsenault said.
The hearse carrying Krystle Campbell’s red-tinted casket was escorted by about 20 police motorcycles and an honor guard of uniformed law enforcement officers stood in front of the church as pallbearers carried the casket in.
A wake for Krystle Campbell was held on Sunday at a funeral home in Medford, where the 29-year-old restaurant manager was raised and graduated from high school in 2001.
After the funeral Mass in St Joseph’s Church on Monday, Krystle Campbell was then buried in Medford’s Oak Grove Cemetery.
Krystle Campbell’s funeral was the first of the memorial events planned for the day. Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino had called for the public to observe a moment of silence at 2:50 p.m., to mark one week since the bombing. Boston University scheduled a 7 p.m. memorial service for graduate student Lu Lingzi, who also died in the blast.
The governors of nearby states including Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine also said they would observe the moment of silence.
No public funeral has yet been scheduled for the bombing’s youngest victim, Martin Richard, or for Sean Collier, a member of the MIT police who the two suspected bombers gunned down on Thursday night.
Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in custody at a Boston hospital on Monday after being apprehended on Friday night. He was badly injured in a gun battle with police that led to the death of his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26.
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Canadian authorities have arrested and charged two people with conspiring to carry out an “al-Qaeda inspired” attack on a passenger train in Toronto.
At a news conference, the authorities said the suspects Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, were arrested in Montreal and Toronto on Monday.
They allegedly planned to derail a VIA passenger train in the greater Toronto area. It was not clear when.
The suspects will now appear in court on Tuesday for a bail hearing.
Canadian authorities have arrested and charged two people with conspiring to carry out an “al-Qaeda inspired” attack on a passenger train in Toronto
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the surveillance operation leading to the arrests of the two suspects was “a result of extensive collaborative efforts”.
They said the two men were not Canadian citizens and were supported by “al-Qaeda elements in Iran” but there was no evidence of state sponsorship.
Their plan was to derail a train and “kill and hurt people”.
Chief Spt. Jennifer Strachan said the two men had sought to target “a specific route, but not necessarily a specific train”.
VIA operates passenger rail services across Canada.
At the same time, the RCMP said they believed the plot was in the planning stage and “there was no imminent threat to the general public”.
“Each and every terrorist arrest the RCMP makes sends a message and illustrates our strong resolve to root out terrorist threats and keep Canadians and our allies safe,” Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said.
The RCMP also said that FBI agents from the US were involved in the operation to foil the attack.
There was no connection between the plot and last week’s Boston Marathon bombings, a US justice department official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
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A newly released photo of David Henneberry’s boat, where Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was discovered, shows a bloodied, bullet-ridden port side.
The damage has undoubtedly devastated 66-year-old David Henneberry, whose adoration for the rare 21-foot Seahawk boat is widely known among family and friends.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was pulled from the boat after a two-hour standoff with police, was shot in his head, neck, legs and hand, according to federal authorities. He’s now in serious condition in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where on Monday he was charged in the twin Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured more than 180.
David Henneberry, meanwhile, has been deemed a hero by local and national authorities after he inadvertently discovered Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Friday evening.
During the standoff, David Henneberry and his wife fled to the home of his neighbor, George Pizzuto, while officers fired on his beloved boat and helicopters swarmed overhead, using infrared lights to peer through the tarp and locate the suspect’s body.
A newly released photo of David Henneberry’s boat, where Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was discovered, shows a bloodied, bullet-ridden port side
Several hours later, following a brief exchange of fire and some negotiating, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody.
It is unknown whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sustained all of his injuries during Friday night’s standoff or during the running gun battle with police early that morning. His brother and suspected accomplice in the bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in the Friday morning gun battle.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s neck wound is reportedly self-inflicted. He is believed to have put his pistol in his mouth and fired, but he survived because the bullet passed through his throat instead of his brain.
Officers believe he sustained at least one of the leg wounds on Friday morning.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged on Monday with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction – namely, an improvised explosive device or IED – against persons and property within the US resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death, according to a criminal complaint.
If he is convicted, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could face a penalty of death or imprisonment for life.
Since the standoff that centered around his beloved boat, David Henneberry has tried to stay out of the media spotlight.
He stayed with relatives over the weekend to avoid reporters swarming outside his home and he declined Watertown officials’ invitation to be honored at Saturday’s Boston Bruins hockey game.
But David Henneberry’s stepson, Robert Duffy, has gladly shared the story of his stepfather’s courage and quick thinking with a number of television networks and newspapers.
His neighbor, George Pizutto, said David Henneberry would be “heartbroken” by the damage to his boat.
“That boat’s his baby. He takes care of it like you wouldn’t believe. And they told him it’s all shot up,” George Pizzuto told ABC affiliate WHAM-13.
“He’s going to be heartbroken.”
George Pizzuto later told reporters that David Henneberry feels overwhelmed by all the attention and that he isn’t ready to talk about what happened or his role in finding the suspect.
A fund set up online to help David Henneberry buy a new boat has raised $256 with a goal of raising $50,000.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were “failed” by their parents, especially their “controlling” mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who encouraged their move towards Islamic radicalization, claims their uncle.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev looked up to their mother as an “angel” but, according to one of their uncles, she was the one who allowed them to be introduced to hardline Islamic views.
Boston marathon bombers’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, claimed that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva allowed a firebrand cleric into their house to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen table during which he claimed he could talk to demons and perform exorcisms.
It appears that the boys’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev never stood up to his wife as she was the “boss” of their house.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s story began in the mid 1980s when a young Kazakh soldier called Anzor Tsarnaev, now 47, met his future wife Zubeidat , now 45, whilst completing his two years of military service.
Anzor Tsarnaev was aged 19 or 20 at the time and Zubeidat 17 or 18. She was from Dagestan, which borders Kazakhstan to the West.
They got married and had four children.
The oldest child was Tamerlan, followed by daughters Bella, now 24, Alilina, now 22, and finally Dzhokhar.
In 2002 Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva came to the US on tourist visas with a young Dzhokhar and claimed asylum.
The rest of the family joined them a year later, having spent 12 months living with Ruslan Tsarni at his home in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, where they used to go to private school and were visited every week by the grandmother.
Ruslan Tsarni recalled Tamerlan Tsarnaev being a “joyful guy with a lot of ambition” during that time.
The boys’ uncle said: “They grew up nice because their grandmother was close to them, our family was close to them.
“Grandmother kept them so they were always under supervision.”
When the Tsarnaevs moved to Cambridge their new life was not much of an American dream.
With minimal language skills their parents had to take whatever work they could get so their mother began offering facials in their cramped home.
At one point there were at least seven people living in a humble semi-detached property.
Another uncle, Alvi Tsarnaev, did minimum wage shifts whilst Anzor started working two jobs including at a car mechanic.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev tried to make a career out of being a boxer but failed and dropped out of Bunker Hill Community College.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev however seemed to excel at school and eventually won a place at the University of Massachusetts where he was studying Marine Biology.
According to Alvi Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar led a quiet life and never went anywhere other than his home on Norfolk St and his school.
Ruslan Tsarni had always had Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s ear and said that like the other children he “came to America for a bright future”.
He remembers seeing him in 2006 when he was 21 and had just graduated high school.
Rusland Tsarni said: “He was asking me questions and I was happy to give him the answers. I told him the best way to start your way in a country, I’d start with the Army. Give [your country] something.
“We’ve not been brought here, give to it.
“I told him that you don’t have good English so you can’t make it to a good school, but later. He can go there, while you serve you improve your English and with English you improve your education and the Army will give you the path.
“At the time he seriously considered it. And in 2009 when I said why are you doing nothing, join the Army, why don’t you be useful, he laughed at me for killing our brother Muslims.”
That year turned out to be a turning point.
After that Ruslan Tarni could no longer act as a proxy parent as he always had done.
Ruslan Tsarni said: “The change of the older boy, one of the biggest causes is her.
“First she started playing into this religious c*** they say is a devotion to Islam.”
Ruslan Tsarni dismissed Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who was arrested last year for stealing $1,600 of lingerie from a department store, as a “bad character”.
Life took a bad turn for one of her daughters who, according to reports, was set up by Zubeidat Tsarnaeva in an arranged marriage.
It fell apart two years later after her husband supposedly beat her up. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva’s other daughter was also married but got divorced too. Both have one child that lives with the father’s family.
Ruslan Tsarni said: “I never liked her, but not for personal reasons. These kids, I thought she’s not doing enough. She’s not doing them right, especially when they grew up.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva may encouraged her sons Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev move towards Islamic radicalization
According to Ruslan Tsarni, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s radicalization was well underway by 2007 – right under the nose of his mother.
He claimed that the man responsible was a cleric aged around 30 called Misha and that he was an Armenian who, unusually for such a largely Christian people, had converted to Islam.
As far as he knew Misha was based in a mosque that was a short drive from Cambridge and that he was new to Islam.
A leader from the 50,000 strong Armenian community in Boston however cast doubt on the claim.
The Rev Gregory Haroutunian said he be “stunned” if anyone in the area would have had such hatred for America.
Ruslan Tsarni said: “People who lack morals but have big ambition always want some attention to themselves or certain respect to themselves.
“All they do is just change a tyre. You wear a hijab and you start dropping every other word Insha’Allah and all of a sudden that makes you a godly person.
“She [Zubeidat Tsarnaeva] supported it [in the boys), some really bad person [started it].
“She was not able to teach them anything. The introduction came from new Muslim convert of Armenian descent.
“He claimed to be an exorcist who is fighting with demons.”
It was in 2007 one evening around midnight as Anzor Tsarnaev came home from work to find the cleric in his kitchen, claimed Ruslan Tsarni.
“It was all the same talking, God, God, how he’s talking to demons, how he’s an exorcist, how he’s healing people. Tamerlan was absolutely in his possession. All around people considered him just another prick.
“Then my brother comes in from work, very late and Anzor is talking to his wife saying what is this person doing here so late?
“Tell him to get the hell out. And she says: <<You’d better shut up, this person is teaching wise things to your son>>. This is the mother. After that Tamerlan went over his place, he changed his views. It started from people like that.”
Ruslan Tsarni said he offered to send Tamerlan Tsarnaev to a school in Almaty and pay for it, but he declined. He gave him $3,000 to buy a car and drive to his home in Maryland just to watch over the house, but he did not do it.
The uncle said he tried “anything but not to be with his parents” because his opinion of them was so low.
He said that he would get phone calls from Ailina Tsarnaeva’s college saying she was in detention, having already been told by Zubeidat that she was in the library. Similar instances happened with Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
By 2009, Ruslan Tsarni had had enough. He told Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and her family they were no longer welcome in his home. Only his brother would be allowed in were they to visit.
It was the last time he would speak to his nephew.
A family friend said that the split happened because Ruslan Tsarni became frustrated when his attempts to change the direction of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s life fell on deaf ears.
As Muslims, the way they traditionally resolved such disputes was that men would talk to men and that words would be said to the wife and the children.
As Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was in command in her house, such pleas fell on deaf ears when made to Anzor Tsarnaev.
A family friend said: “It drove a wedge between them. Ruslan couldn’t help Tamerlan because Anzor told him to stay away from his wife and not tell her what to do.
“It was very upsetting for Ruslan. He loves Dzhokhar and Tamerlan so much and to not be able to do anything really upset him.
“Anzor is so in love with his wife that he will do anything that she says. He will go to the ends of the Earth to be with her.
“For Anzor, them being together is more important to him than anything else.”
At some point Anzor Tsarnaev appears to have moved back to Kazakhstan, or possibly Dagestan.
Some reports have suggested Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva separated but relatives claimed that they are still together.
The last time Ruslan Tsarni spoke to Tamerlan Tsarnaev was in August 2009. He did not even go to his wedding to Katherine Russell, with whom Tamerlan Tsarnaev has a 3-year-old daughter, and found out about it a year or so later.
Reflecting on their last conversation, Ruslan Tsarni said: “I asked him why he wasn’t at work, what happened with your college, why are you not in college.
“He changed his life views and he’s on the path of God…he was all the time in the path of Jihad.
“My brother lost control of it [his family] a long time ago. The mother was very influential. She says they would share everything with her, she had a very strong influence over them. She was controlling them.
“Tamerlan absolutely controlled Dzhokhar, he was under his influence. This is how in our tradition, the older one has to control but take care of the younger ones.
“The taking care didn’t happen and he wasted his brother’s life and he made him involved in this massacre.
“Me as an uncle I hold responsible for what turned out with these kids, the parents. Had Tamerlan been closer to me, had I heard any of his talking I would have cut it and been harsh with him.”
With no uncle to watch over him, Tamerlan Tsarnaev appears to have become even more radical and, on a personal level, more angry with the world.
In 2009 Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested after slapping his girlfriend and leaving her crying “hysterically”, according to the arrest report, because she suspected he was cheating on her.
In 2012, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar began attending a local mosque, the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Centre, but were not regulars.
About three months ago Tamerlan Tsarnaev was thrown out after he shouted at the imam during a Friday prayer service because he held up a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and said he was a good man who they should emulate.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev called him a Kaffir, or non-believer, and said: “You cannot mention this guy because he’s not a Muslim!”
Alvi Tsarnaev said that Ruslan Tsarni gave Tamerlan and Dzhokhar a great start in life and ‘put those children in a good place’.
But he also agreed that when it came to family affairs, they treated their mother “like an angel” – and that what she said was the law.
Alvi Tsarnaev said: “They would do anything for their mother. They are not going to listen to their father but they are going to listen to their mother.
“They are very close to their mother….she is the family boss. She is the boss in the family.
“Usually in Muslim people the boss is the man, but in their family, she is the boss.”
Alvi Tsarnaev also revealed that the hate which swept up his two nephews is now reached his doorstep too.
Since the bombings he has received a string of voicemail messages which have left him deeply disturbed.
He has deleted most of them, but the one he has saved is a man’s voice which says: “Leave our country you Cechnic Chechen Muslim motherf******s.”
For her part Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is unrepentant about encouraging Tamerlan to become more religious and even brags about how it has “changed” her for the better.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told the Wall St Journal that at Tamerlan’s request she wore Islamic clothes around the house, even though her husband did not want her to.
She said: “I told Tamerlan that we are Muslim, and we are not practicing our religion, and how can we call ourselves Muslims?
“And that’s how Tamerlan started reading about Islam, and he started praying, and he got more and more and more into his religion.
“I started reading and started learning, I started reading with my Tamerlan.”
In fact their bond was so close, that it was her that Tamerlan Tsarnaev chose to phone in the early hour of Friday morning in the middle of the gun battle with police that would claim his life.
With a suicide vest round his neck and explosions going off around him, Tamerlan Tsarnaev dialed his mother’s number and said: “The police, they have started shooting at us, they are chasing us.”
Then, finally, before hanging up Tamerlan Tsarnaev said: “Mama, I love you.”
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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, the US Department of Justice has announced today.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was charged in hospital, could face the death penalty.
A White House spokesman has said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will not be treated as an “enemy combatant”, as suggested by some Republican members of Congress.
The twin bomb attack near the Boston Marathon finishing line killed three people, and injured more than 180.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured on Friday evening after a huge manhunt during which his older brother and suspected fellow bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction
He has been unable to speak because of a throat wound, though he has reportedly responded to questions in writing.
As well as a count of using a weapon of mass destruction, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces one count of malicious destruction of property resulting in death, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
In addition to federal charges, prosecutors for the state of Massachusetts, which does not have the death penalty, could file their own.
“He will not be treated as an enemy combatant,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
“We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice.”
The city of Boston is due to observe a moment of silence for the victims at 14:50 local time, exactly one week after the attack.
Also on Monday, a private funeral was being held for 29-year-old restaurant worker Krystle Campbell, who was killed at the marathon finish line after going to watch the race with a friend.
A memorial service was scheduled later for another victim, Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old graduate student from China.
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Nike has decided to remove its T-shirts emblazoned with “Boston Massacre” from shelves after outcry over their insensitivity in the wake of the city’s bombings.
The T-shirts, worn by Yankees fans, show blood-splattered lettering – a reference to when the team overcame a massive game deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox and win the World Series in 1978.
The insensitive garments were brought to Nike’s attention when Eric Stangel, an executive producer and writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, tweeted an image of the shirt.
“Saw this @ Nike Outlet,” Eric Stangel, who lives in New York, wrote on Saturday.
Nike has decided to remove its T-shirts emblazoned with “Boston Massacre” from shelves after outcry over their insensitivity in the wake of the city’s bombings
“Told them they shouldn’t be selling it.”
Eric Stangel added that a staff member responded, somewhat cryptically: “We’ve been taking them down. But somehow they keep ending up back on the rack.”
“Who thought that was a good idea?” one follower wrote.
Another said: “Rip off the rack!”
Many others questioned the point of the T-shirt before the even massacre occurred.
Among the responses on Twitter, Eric Stangel also heard from a representative from Nike, Heidi Burgett.
“Thank you Eric,” she wrote.
“We took action earlier this week to remove the shirts. We are immediately on it again thanks to your tweet.”
The T-shirt has a double meaning; the name “Boston Massacre” was originally used to describe an attack by the British Army in 1770, in an incident which left five civilian men dead and six injured.
The phrase was later adopted by baseball fans to refer to a series between the Red Sox and the Yankees in 1978, when the Yankees battled back from a 14-game deficit to equal the Sox.
After winning a one-game playoff against the Boston team, the Yankees played the Los Angeles Dodgers and won the World Series.
Boston is still recovering following the bombings at the finish line of the marathon, which left three dead and injured more than 180 people a week ago.
One suspected bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was later killed in a police shoot out, while the second, his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is recovering in hospital with a throat wound after apparently trying to kill himself.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev told a man whose Mercedes SUV they hijacked on Thursday night that they planned to go to New York, it has emerged.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, seized a Mercedes-Benz SUV and held the driver hostage as they sought to flee from police late on Thursday.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev told a man whose Mercedes SUV they hijacked on Thursday night that they planned to go to New York
The Boston Marathon bombers told the driver that they planned to head to New York, a senior official revealed, but it is not clear if they told the man what they intended to do there, the New York Times reported.
The latest detail emerged as police confirmed Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev likely planned more attacks, and suggests they could have wrought even greater devastation on the US after being undetected by the FBI.
Boston police commissioner, Edward Davis, said on Sunday that police believed they had planned more attacks beyond the bombings at the marathon finish line.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have also murdered his “only American friend” Brendan Mess in an unsolved triple killing in 2011, it emerged today.
Brendan Mess was found with his “throat slit” alongside two other men in a Massachusetts apartment in 2011 in what police described as a “very graphic crime scene”.
Former associates of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev didn’t initially suspect him of carrying out the gruesome attack, but thought it was strange he didn’t attend his friend’s funeral.
Now one man who knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev through the gym where they trained said some of their social circle “without even speaking about it beforehand have all been thinking” he could be involved.
One friend, who gave his name only as Ray, told BuzzFeed Politics: “At the time, none of us would have thought it was Tam.
“It was just so emotional and we thought we had someone else who had done it.”
Brendan Mess was found with his “throat slit” alongside two other men in a Massachusetts apartment in 2011
But since Tamerlan Tsarnaev was identified as the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured 180, Ray believes his sudden disappearance after Brendan Mess’s death may be a clue.
“Tam wasn’t there at the memorial service, he wasn’t at the funeral, he wasn’t around at all,” Ray said.
“And he was really close with Brendan. That’s why it’s so weird.”
Ray said he met Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2010 when they were part of a social circle that centered on the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts gym in Allston, Massachusetts, where Tsarnaev trained as a boxer and had a shared interest in the Boston hip-hop group FlyRidaz.
He said they had a friendly, but not particularly close relationship and described Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a “normal guy who wore regular American-ish clothes”.
Their contact stopped when Brendan Mess and two other men – Raphael Teken and Erik Weissman – were murdered on September 12, 2011.
Their bodies were found covered in marijuana in an apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts, and had their throats slit with a knife or ice pick and around $5,000 was left at the scene.
Brendan Mess’s girlfriend discovered the bodies, she ran from the house screaming.
Initially police said two other people had been there on the day and they were looking to question them, although no one has ever been charged.
Ray said there had been no forced entry, so police believe the killer was known the victim and was let into the apartment.
Investigators at the time said the murders were “targeted and not a random act of violence”.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone issued a statement soon after the murders saying: “Based on the present state of the investigation, it is believed that the victims knew the assailant or assailants, and the attacks were not random.”
Neighbors described Brendan Mess and his two roommates as quiet, nice people who were a welcome change of pace from previous residents who often had loud parties late into the evening.
Indeed, at the time of the killing, police and Brendan Mess’ friends suspected his girlfriend, an immigrant from Somalia that Ray describes as a “transient” who “latched onto Brendan”.
Ray described her as having a good relationship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev and that they would have “conversations about religious things and lifestyles”.
In 2008, Erik Weissman was charged with marijuana possession and intent to distribute, according to a report.
Police pulled Erik Weissman over for failing to yield and smelled marijuana smoke in the vehicle.
When asked about it, Erik Weissman said: “I knew you would smell it,” and handed the officer a brown paper bag filled with bags of marijuana, police said.
A year earlier, Tamerlan Tsarnaev claimed to have just one American friend despite spending much of his life in the US.
Indeed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev introduced Brendan Mess as his best friend to the owner of the gym.
Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center owner John Allan said Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Brendan Mess used to work out at his gym together but Tsarnaev stopped coming after Mess was murdered.
The event clearly still haunted Tamerlan Tsarnaev as recently as last week when he suddenly returned to his old gym and started acting unusually.
The business owner who was traveling in Thailand at the time said he received an e-mail saying Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been in, but acted rudely and disrespectfully to other gym-users.
“It was a clear indication that something was up,” John Allan told the Boston Globe.
“He was becoming a complete [expletive].”
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Federal authorities have asked to speak with Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, wife of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, her lawyer said.
Amato DeLuca also offered new details on Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s movements in the days after the bombings, saying “he was home” when Katherine Russell Tsarnaev left for work on the last day she saw him alive.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev learned her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a suspect by seeing it on TV, Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, two ethnic Chechen brothers from southern Russia, are accused of planting two explosives near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, killing three and injuring more than 180.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev learned her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a suspect by seeing it on TV
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev did not speak to federal officials who came to her parents’ home yesterday evening, where she has been staying since Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a getaway attempt on Friday.
Amato DeLuca said he spoke with the federal officials, but he would not offer further details.
“We’re deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this,” the lawyer said.
When asked whether anything seemed amiss to Katherine Russell Tsarnaev following the bombings, Amato DeLuca said: “Not as far as I know.”
Amato DeLuca said his client did not suspect her husband of anything.
He said Katherine Russell Tsarnaev had been working 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week as a home health care aide. While she was at work, Tamerlan Tsarnaev cared for their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara, Amato DeLuca said.
“When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family,” he told the AP.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s awareness of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s movements, thoughts and plans is under intense scrutiny as her relation to him and her proximity to both brothers makes her a key witness – witting or otherwise.
The eldest of three daughters, to emergency physician Dr. Warren Russell and nurse Judith, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev had an upbringing steeped in the values of family and education.
Amato DeLuca said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was off at college and Katherine Russell Tsarnaev saw him “not at all” at the apartment they shared with her mother-in-law.
Katherine Russell was attending university in Boston when friends introduced her to her future husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a nightclub, Amato DeLuca added.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Katherine Russell dated on and off, then married in 2009 or 2010, the lawyer said.
Katherine Russell was raised Christian, but at some point after meeting Tamerlan Tsarnaev, she converted to Islam, he said.
When asked why she converted, Amato DeLuca said: “She believes in the tenets of Islam and of the Koran. She believes in God.”
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Sources close to the FBI investigation claim that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not act alone and were part of a 12-man terror sleeper cell.
According to a source, the FBI was working furiously to track down the cell amid concerns that further attacks on American soil are being planned and carried out.
On Saturday afternoon, two 19-year-old men from Kazakhstan named by neighbors by their first names Azmat and Diaz and thought to be friends of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested – as it was revealed the pair drove around in a black BMW with vanity plates that read “Terorrista#1”.
Sources close to the FBI investigation claim that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not act alone and were part of a 12-man terror sleeper cell
“We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google,” said the source to the UK’s Daily Mirror.
“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”
However, the Boston Mayor Tom Menino says the briefings he has been privy to assure him that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing acted alone.
Tom Menino told ABC’s This Week that he agreed with the decision to lock down Boston all day Friday, based on what officials knew at the time.
He did admit though that a pipe bomb has been found at another location and that another person has been taken into custody, although at this time he would not elaborate.
Azmat and Diaz, who are said to be friends with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were taken into custody again on Saturday.
This time the two foreign nationals were arrested over alleged immigration violations in the Massachusetts town, New Bedford, where police say the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, may have once lived.
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