Boston Bombing Suspect Says Victims Were Collateral Damage, Dead Brother in Paradise
In a note found scrawled on the inside of the boat in which he was hiding at the time of his arrest, Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, claimed responsibility for the chilling April 15 attack, dismissed victims as "collateral damage" and looked forward to joining his dead older brother in paradise.
Billed part suicide note, manifesto and justification for the attack, sources disclosed in a CBS News report on Thursday that Tsarnaev scribbled the missive as he bled in hiding from a gunshot wound he suffered during an episode of gunfire with police and his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
"When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims," Tsarnaev reportedly wrote on a bullet riddled wall on the boat. He further claimed in the note that the bombings were retribution for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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He also intimated that he didn't mourn his older brother because he was a martyr in paradise and he would join him there soon.
Former assistant FBI director and CBS News Senior Correspondent John Miller said the note is expected to be a major piece of evidence in any trial. He said it is "certainly admissible" and presents a clear motive behind the actions of the brothers.
The note, he explained, is important because although Tsarnaev admitted many of the claims while he was in custody for 16 hours, those admissions were made before he was read his Miranda rights. The note will help support the prosecution's case should there be an issue with admitting what Tsarnaev said before he was read his Miranda rights.
Investigators believe the note supports their theory that Dzhokar Tsarnaev's involvement in the bombings went beyond simply following the lead of his older brother.
"The last big question remaining is going to be who else knew anything? Is it going to be the wife? Is it someone overseas?" asked Miller in the report.
The brothers reportedly had plans to set off a device or devices in Times Square, N.Y.
On May 7, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in an unmarked grave in a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Va., after several cemeteries refused to accept his remains for burial, according to a CNN report.
"My tradition was that of a Muslim, and I have that tradition of burial, and people helped me with that," Tamerlan's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, explained in the report.
Massachusetts authorities issued a death certificate showing that Tamerlan died from gunshot wounds and "blunt trauma to (his) head and torso." He was interred at Al-Barzakh Muslim Cemetery in Doswell, about 25 minutes north of Richmond in a rural county of about 30,000 people, according to CNN.
