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| Police cars sit across from the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., Friday, May 3, 2013. Owner Peter Stefan confirmed his facility will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but did not say whether he had possession of the body. |
BOSTON (AP)
-- A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings died from gunshot wounds
and blunt trauma to his head and torso, his death certificate says.
Worcester
funeral home owner Peter Stefan has 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev's
body and read details from his death certificate on Friday. The
certificate cites Tsarnaev's "gunshot wounds of torso and extremities,"
Stefan said.
Tsarnaev died last month after a
gunfight with authorities a few days after the deadly marathon bombing.
Police have said he ran out of ammunition before his younger brother
dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene.
Tsarnaev's
family was making arrangements for his funeral as investigators
searched the woods near a college attended by his younger brother,
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Friday.
The funeral
parlor in Worcester is familiar with Muslim services and said it will
handle arrangements for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whose body was released by
the state medical examiner Thursday night.
The
body was taken initially to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it
was greeted by about 20 protesters. Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and
Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, an hour's drive west of Boston,
said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the
circumstances of his or her death and he is prepared for protests.
Tsarnaev
died three days after the bombing in a furious getaway attempt in which
authorities say he and his brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia who
came to the United States about a decade ago, killed an MIT campus
police officer and tossed homemade bombs and grenades at police.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, ran over his brother's body as he drove away from
the scene to escape, authorities have said.
Meanwhile,
two U.S. officials said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators that he
and his brother initially considered setting off their bombs on July
Fourth.
Boston police said they planned to
review security procedures for the Independence Day Boston Pops concert
and fireworks display, which draws a crowd of more than 500,000 annually
and is broadcast to a national TV audience. Authorities plan to look at
security procedures for large events held in other cities, notably the
massive New Year's Eve celebration held each year in New York City's
Times Square, Massachusetts state police spokesman David Procopio said.
Gov. Deval Patrick said everything possible will be done to assure a safe event.
"I
think the most important thing is that we got them, and there's
investigation continuing about where the other leads may lead," he said.
"I can tell you, having been thoroughly briefed, that the law
enforcement at every level is pursuing everything."
As
part of the bombing investigation, federal, state and local authorities
were searching the woods near the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
campus, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student. Christina
DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, could
not say what investigators were looking for but said residents should
know there is no threat to public safety.
Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev, who was found hiding in a tarp-covered boat in a suburban
Boston backyard, faces a charge of using a weapon of mass destruction to
kill. Three of his college classmates were arrested Wednesday and
accused of helping after the bombing to remove a laptop and backpack
from his dormitory room before the FBI searched it.
The
April 15 bombing, using pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails,
ball bearings and metal shards, killed three people and injured more
than 260 others near the marathon's finish line.
The
brothers considered setting off their bombs on July Fourth but decided
to carry out the attack sooner when they finished assembling the bombs,
the surviving suspect told interrogators after he was arrested,
according to two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. The
officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Investigators
believe some of the explosives used in the attack were assembled in
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's home, though there may have been some assembly
elsewhere, one of the officials said. It does not appear that the
brothers ever had big, definitive plans, the official said.
The brothers' mother insists the allegations against them are lies.
Meanwhile,
the Department of Homeland Security ordered border agents to
immediately begin verifying that every international student who arrives
in the U.S. has a valid student visa, according to an internal
memorandum obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The new procedure is
the government's first security change directly related to the Boston
bombings.
The order from a senior official at
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, David J. Murphy, was circulated
Thursday and came one day after President Barack Obama's administration
acknowledged that one of the students accused of hiding evidence, Azamat
Tazhayakov, of Kazakhstan, was allowed to return to the U.S. in January
without a valid student visa.
Tazhayakov's lawyer has said he had nothing to do with the bombing and was shocked by it.
A
benefit concert featuring Aerosmith, James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett is
scheduled for May 30 at the TD Garden in Boston. The proceeds will go to
The One Fund, which has taken in more than $28 million for those
injured and the families of those who were killed.
The
fund's administrator, Kenneth Feinberg, said Friday he plans to hold
meetings with victims next week and begin cutting checks by the end of
June.
