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| Police officers stand near statues of former Boston Red Sox greats, from left, Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio during a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox, the first game held in the city following the Boston Marathon explosions, Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Boston. Police captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, late Friday, after a wild car chase and gun battle earlier in the day left his older brother dead. |
BOSTON (AP)
-- Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lay hospitalized in
serious condition under heavy guard Saturday - apparently in no shape
to be interrogated - as investigators tried to establish the motive for
the deadly attack and the scope of the plot.
People
across the Boston area breathed easier the morning after Tsarnaev, 19,
was pulled, wounded and bloody, from a tarp-covered boat in a Watertown
backyard. The capture came at the end of a tense day that began with his
26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, dying in a gunbattle with police.
There
was no immediate word on when Tsarnaev might be charged and what those
charges would be. The twin bombings killed three people and wounded more
than 180.
The most serious charge available
to federal prosecutors would be the use of a weapon of mass destruction
to kill people, which carries a possible death sentence. Massachusetts
does not have the death penalty.
President
Barack Obama said there are many unanswered questions about the bombing,
including whether the Tsarnaev brothers - ethnic Chechens from southern
Russia who had been in the U.S. for about a decade and lived in the
Boston area - had help from others. The president urged people not to
rush judgment about their motivations.
U.S.
officials said an elite interrogation team would question the
Massachusetts college student without reading him his Miranda rights,
something that is allowed on a limited basis when the public may be in
immediate danger, such as instances in which bombs are planted and ready
to go off.
The American Civil Liberties Union
expressed concern about that possibility. Executive Director Anthony
Romero said the legal exception applies only when there is a continued
threat to public safety and is "not an open-ended exception" to the
Miranda rule, which guarantees the right to remain silent and the right
to an attorney.
The federal public defender's
office in Massachusetts said it has agreed to represent Tsarnaev once he
is charged. Miriam Conrad, public defender for Massachusetts, said he
should have a lawyer appointed as soon as possible because there are
"serious issues regarding possible interrogation."
Massachusetts
Gov. Deval Patrick said Saturday afternoon that Tsarnaev was in serious
but stable condition and was probably unable to communicate. Tsarnaev
was at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where 11 victims
of the bombing were still being treated.
"I,
and I think all of the law enforcement officials, are hoping for a host
of reasons the suspect survives," the governor said after a ceremony at
Fenway Park to honor the victims and survivors of the attack. "We have a
million questions, and those questions need to be answered."
The all-day manhunt Friday brought the Boston area to a near standstill and put people on edge across the metropolitan area.
The
break came around nightfall when a homeowner in Watertown saw blood on
his boat, pulled back the tarp and saw a bloody Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding
inside, police said. After an exchange of gunfire, he was seized and
taken away in an ambulance.
Raucous
celebrations erupted in and around Boston, with chants of "USA! USA!"
Residents flooded the streets in relief four days after the two
pressure-cooker bombs packed with nails and other shrapnel went off.
Michael Spellman said he bought tickets to Saturday's Red Sox game at Fenway Park to help send a message to the bombers.
"They're
not going to stop us from doing things we love to do," he said, sitting
a few rows behind home plate.
"We're not going to live in fear."
During
the long night of violence leading up to the capture, the Tsarnaev
brothers killed an MIT police officer, severely wounded another lawman
and took part in a furious shootout and car chase in which they hurled
explosives at police from a large homemade arsenal, authorities said.
Chechnya,
where the Tsarnaev family has roots, has been the scene of two wars
between Russian forces and separatists since 1994. That spawned an
Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings in Russia and
the region, although not in the West.
Investigators
have not offered a motive for the Boston attack. But in interviews with
officials and those who knew the Tsarnaevs, a picture has emerged of
the older one as someone embittered toward the U.S., increasingly
vehement in his Muslim faith and influential over his younger brother.
The
Russian FSB intelligence service told the FBI in 2011 about information
that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a follower of radical Islam, two law
enforcement officials said Saturday.
According
to an FBI news release, a foreign government said that Tamerlan
Tsarnaev appeared to be strong believer and that he had changed
drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the U.S. for travel to
the Russian region to join unspecified underground groups.
The
FBI did not name the foreign government, but the two officials said it
was Russia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to talk about the matter publicly.
The
FBI said that in response, it interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and
relatives, and did not find any domestic or foreign terrorism activity.
The bureau said it looked into such things as his telephone and online
activity, his travels and his associations with others.
An uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers said he had a falling-out with Tamerlan over the man's increased commitment to Islam.
Ruslan
Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., 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.
Tsarni said his relationship with his nephew ended after that call.
As
for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, "he's been absolutely wasted by his older
brother. I mean, he used him. He used him for whatever he's done,"
Tsarni said.
Albrecht Ammon, a
downstairs-apartment neighbor of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Cambridge, said in
an interview that the older brother had strong political views about
the United States. Ammon quoted Tsarnaev as saying that the U.S. uses
the Bible as "an excuse for invading other countries."
Tamerlan
Tsarnaev studied accounting as a part-time student at Bunker Hill
Community College in Boston for three semesters from 2006 to 2008, the
school said. He was married with a young daughter. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was
a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
As of Saturday, more than 50 victims of the bombing remained hospitalized, three in critical condition.
