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CNN 10
Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Arrested
Aired April 22, 2013 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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RICHARD DESLAURIERS, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE OF THE FBI`S BOSTON FIELD OFFICE: Today, we are enlisting the public`s help to identify the two suspects.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: As we reported on Friday, that request for help from the public came on Thursday evening. When the FBI released photos of two suspects in the Boston Marathon terror bombing. Ours later, an officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 26-year old Sean Collier was killed, police say, by the same suspects. Then there was a carjacking, and the chase in the middle of the night into the Boston suburb of Watertown, a shootout with police. Sources told CNN the suspects threw a grenade and pipe bombs at officers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve heard gunshots, and then we saw the explosion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) gunshots. And then like boom, boom - like the three big bangs.
AZUZ: Officers shot suspect number one. 26-year old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had explosives strapped to his body. He died later.
His younger brother, 19-year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev got away.
COL. TIMOTHY ALBEN, MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: What we are looking for right now, is a suspect consistent with the description of suspect number two.
AZUZ: More than 9,000 officers were involved in the manhunt, much of Boston was under a lockdown, while authorities searched for suspect number two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe this to be a terrorist, we believe this to be a man who`s coming here to kill people.
AZUZ: By late Friday, there still hadn`t been an arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not have an apprehension of our suspect this afternoon, but we will have one.
AZUZ: Just one hour after that, officers had suspect number two cornered. A citizen in Watertown told police someone was hiding in his boat. It turned out to be suspect number two, Dzokhar Tsarnaev.
VOICE OF BRIAN TODD, WATERTOWN MASSACHUSETTS: They are yelling loudly, to someone that are in the boat or near out, come out, and we just heard him say come out on your own terms, we also heard them say come out with your hands up.
AZUZ: And then at 8:45 ..
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: The Boston Police Department has just tweeted "Suspect in custody."
CROWD: Boston! Boston!
AZUZ: Celebration on the streets of Boston.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We`ve closed an important chapter in this tragedy.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
AZUZ: Despite the celebrations, there is still tragedy. Four lives are lost, Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard Lingzi Lu and Sean Collier. Many others are seriously injured. Technology played a crucial from the moment of the investigation began on Monday. And it was part of the capture on Friday evening as well. Tom Foreman explains the details.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These stunning images of the capture itself are a testament to the tenacity and the technology that was brought to bear in this chase. Let`s remember that the authorities have been closing an all-day on this neighborhood, sitting up a net around it, basically. So that this young man could not escape. And in the evening, sure enough, somebody looks in his backyard, saw his boat cover with torn, there was blood on it, looked inside and he called the police. Thousands of officers rest in, they put up a coordinate around all this, and then they called in the technology: a thermal imaging helicopter. What is that? Well, that`s a device that will fly around and look down at the ground with s special camera that reads any kind of heat signatures were demonstrating with this mode.
What does that mean? Well, it means even the heat of a body will show up on this image, so as they looked at the boat in the backyard, this is what they saw: there was indeed someone in the boat as the witness had suggested, and he was moving around. A gun fight broke out, he was hit at least two more times, according to authorities, they threw flash bang grenades in there to try to suppress his movements, to stun him, and then everything got quiet. Well, that was a moment, at which they brought in some more technology, essentially a robotic arm, which reached in and started tearing away at that fabric and trying to get a better look in the boat, even as negotiators were calling out through bull horns, some on the second floor of the house, saying you need to surrender. But they kept poking around inside there, and finally, around 8:00 they brought back in the thermal device, and this time as it flew over, this is what it saw: inside the boat, the man was completely down now.
His feet are this way, you can see that at the other end, his head is on the other side of that council. By this point, authorities were convinced that he really was ready to surrender, and, in fact, had no strength to fight back anymore. They made him stand up and show that he had no bombs on him and finally took him into custody.
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AZUZ: So, beyond their names, what do we know about the suspects in the Boston Marathon terror bombings? Well, their family is from Chechnya, a republic of Russia. The family fled its home in the 1990 during a brutal conflict between Chechen rebels and Russian troops. The suspects were born in Kyrgyzstan, a small country in Central Asia. The younger brother arrived in the U.S. in 2002 when he was eight. Later he got a partial college scholarship, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen on September 11th, 2012. It`s not clear when exactly the older brother came to the U.S.
Officials say it was either 2003 or 2006. He was a boxer, as you see in this pictures from lowellsun.com. This video of him was posted on Youtube. FBI investigated him two years ago, at the request of Russia. Russia says he was a follower of radical Islam and that he changed dramatically since 2010, at the time of its investigation, the FBI said it found no connection between him and terrorist groups. The U.S. Homeland Security officials says he traveled to Russia in 2012.
The news was a shock to many people CNN spoke to in the Boston community. They generally had good things to say about the brothers, but not everyone in the suspect`s family did.
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RUSLAN TSARNI, SUSPECT`S UNCLE: He put a shame - he put a shame on the Tsarni - on our family, Tsarnaev`s family. He put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity.
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AZUZ: That was the suspect`s uncle talking to reporters on Friday. He spoke out against his nephews and offered his thoughts to the victims.
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RUSLAN TSARNI, SUSPECT`S UNCLE: First, the only purpose here is just the believer, condolences and to shape grief with the real victims here, those who have been murdered, those who have been injured.
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AZUZ: The suspect`s parents reacted differently claiming their sons wouldn`t do something like this.
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ANZOR TSARNAEV, SUSPECT`S FATHER: My kids never did anything - that`s it.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, your sons didn`t do this.
TSARNAEV: Never, ever.
PATON WALSH: Are you going to America?
TSARNAEV: Yes, I will go.
ZUBEIDAT TSARNAEVA, suspects` mother: It`s impossible, impossible for them - for both of them to do such thing. So I`m really, really, really, really telling that this is a set up.
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AZUZ: The suspects` uncle talked to CNN after the younger brother was arrested. He said he was angry when he spoke on Friday. On Saturday, he said he felt a sense of relief.
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RUSLAN TSARNI: I`m relieved. I`m relieved that he is alive. First of all, for that there`s no a chance to find out who was behind of it. And second of all, I stress that it`s a chance for Dzokhar into seek forgiveness.
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AZUZ: With the search for the suspects over, the city of Boston spent this weekend celebrating, honoring the memories of the victims of this violence and trying to return to some sense of normalcy.
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CROWD: Boston! Boston! Boston! USA! USA!
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel relieved, and I feel like everybody else is relieved. I feel like I can go back to school now and know that I`m safe.
TOM MENINO, MAYOR OF BOSTON: Today, the city of Boston, the city of Cambridge and the city of Watertown and many other communities can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that two perpetrators who caused so much pain and anguish are no longer a threat to our personal safety and to our communities.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Whatever hateful agenda draw these men to such heinous acts, we`ll not - cannot prevail. Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they`ve already failed: the y failed because the people of Boston refused to be intimidated.
We think of all the wounded, still struggling to recover. Their lives reflected all the diversity and beauty of our country. And they were sharing a great American experience together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Recovery is also happening in the town of West in Texas. Residents there were allowed to start going back home over the weekend, and inspected damage caused by last week`s explosion at a fertilizer plant. 14 people were killed in the fire and explosion last Wednesday night, at least ten of those were first responders. EMTs or firefighters. Hundreds of others were injured, many of the town`s residents were left homeless.
Authorities haven`t determined the cause of the fire or explosion yet.
On Friday, members of the West community came together for a prayer service and candle light vigil. Hundreds of people were there to honor the victims, firefighters from across the state came to the ceremony to pay tribute to the first responders who were killed. The focus of the service was on rebuilding and moving forward, challenge that`s now facing this small Texas town.
Yesterday, London held its annual marathon. For many of the runners and spectators, it was a chance to pay tribute to the Boston marathon and the victims of last week`s violence there. London`s race began with 30 seconds of silence. Black ribbons were available for runners to wear, many people found their own ways to honor Boston. For each runner that crossed the finish line, the race`s organizers` donated money to a victims relief fund in Boston. It was really an example of the London marathon putting its best foot forward. We have to go for today, we hope you`ll join us tomorrow, when we`ll have coverage of earth day and teachers. Don`t forget to visit the feedback link on our home page. I hope you`ll have a wonderful day.
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