TORONTO – One week after two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured more than 180 others, officials have charged the surviving bombing suspect.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be prosecuted in the federal court system, and not as an enemy combatant in a military tribunal. On Monday, the U.S. Attorney General announced that Dzhokhar has been charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against persons and property resulting in death.
READ MORE: White House: Bomb suspect to be tried in federal court, not as enemy combatant
Tsarnaev remains hospitalized and unable to speak, with a gunshot wound to the throat. In addition to federal charges, he could face state charges in connection with the fatal shooting of MIT police officer Sean Collier.
During a long night of violence Thursday and into Friday, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev killed an MIT police officer, severely wounded another lawman and hurled explosives at police in a desperate getaway attempt, authorities said.
Tamerlan, 26, died in the shootout.
Late Friday, less than an hour after authorities said the search for Dzhokhar had proved fruitless, they tracked down the 19-year-old college student holed up in a boat, weakened by a gunshot wound after fleeing on foot from the overnight shootout with police.
Authorities said the man dubbed Suspect No. 1 – the one in sunglasses and a dark baseball cap in the surveillance-camera pictures – was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, while Suspect No. 2, the one in a white baseball cap worn backward, was his younger brother.
Law enforcement officials and family members identified the brothers as ethnic Chechens who had lived in Dagestan, in southern Russia. The brothers had been in the United States for about a decade and lived near Boston, an uncle said.
According to authorities, the motive for the bombings still remains unclear. Three days after the massive manhunt, details about the suspects continue to emerge.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Unable to speak Monday with a gunshot wound to the throat, 19-year old Boston Marathon bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in the hospital.
According to media reports, the suspect is reportedly awake and communicating with investigators in writing. It was not clear whether Tsarnaev was shot by police or inflicted the wound himself.
READ MORE: Bomb suspect awake, being questioned, reports say
Dzhokhar was registered as a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Students said he was on campus this week after the Boston Marathon bombing.
The campus closed down Friday along with colleges around the Boston area.
The men’s father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said in a telephone interview with AP from the Russian city of Makhachkala that his younger son, Dzhokhar, is “a true angel” who was studying medicine.
According to CNN, Dzhokhar worked at Harvard University as a lifeguard. He was a star wrestler at Cambridge Ridge high school and was considered by one of his high school wrestling coaches as “smart kid.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Wrestler, stoner, accused marathon bomber
“He was just not one of those kids I thought would get in trouble,” said Peter Payack in an interview.
Friends and neighbours of suspect Dzhokhar said the reports of the 19-year old’s involvement in the Boston bombings is not possible based on the person they know.
VIDEO: Friends and neighbours of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in disbelief (April 19)
The younger Tsarnaev was discovered Friday evening hiding in a boat covered by a tarp in suburban Watertown.
While Dzhokhar appeared to have had a wide circle of friends and has been described as kind-hearted and intelligent, his brother Tamerlan reportedly struggled to feel integrated into American society.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev
The eldest of the two brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an avid boxer who was ready to fight for Team U.S.A. In 2011, he fought in the 201-pound weight class at the national Golden Gloves tournament in Utah.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died early Friday after waging the gunfight with police alongside his younger brother. Police say he was run over by a car driven by his brother as he fled, but the Massachusetts’ chief medical examiner is still working to figure out exactly what killed the elder brother.
READ MORE: Who are Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev?
According to a federal law enforcement official who was reportedly not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan at the request of a foreign government in 2011, and nothing derogatory was found.
The official did not identify the foreign country or say why it made the request.
The brothers’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni from Maryland, said Tamerlan told him in a 2009 phone conversation that he had chosen “God’s business” over work or school.
Tsarni said he then contacted a family friend who told him Tsarnaev had been influenced by a recent convert to Islam.
VIDEO: Uncle of suspects ashamed by nephews’ actions (April 19)
According to Tsarni, his relationship with his nephew ended after that call.
Federal authorities are now looking into that foray to determine whether Tsarnaev had any contact with Chechen extremists in the region. The major active group there – the Caucasus Emirate, a small band of fierce Islamic insurgents – has denied any involvement in the bombings.
Reports of the social isolation and supposed increasing radicalism of Tamerlan continue to emerge amid repeated suggestions from friends and family that he may have led his younger brother astray.
On Sunday, a lawyer for Tamerlan’s wife told The Associated Press that federal authorities have asked to speak with her, and that he is discussing with them how to proceed.
Attorney Amato DeLuca said Katherine Russell Tsarnaev did not suspect her husband of anything, and that there was no reason for her to have suspected him. He said she had been working 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week, as a home health care aide. While she was at work, her husband cared for their toddler daughter, he said.
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