Dzhokar Tsarnaev: The Remaining Boston Bombing Suspect

Impact

According to USA Today and federal law enforcement, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect has been identified as Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed during a firefight with police in nearby Watertown, Mass., was identified as the second suspect.

Local police are intensely pursuing Dzhokar. Federal agents swarmed to Watertown after the shootout and car chase that killed the elder Tsarnaev brother. Currently, the police are looking for a gray 199 Honda CRV with a Massachusetts license plate.

The chaos ensued at around 10:20 pm on Thursday, when the bombing suspects robbed a 7-Eleven in Cambridge, and then shot an MIT officer responding to the robbery call. Afterwards, the suspects carjacked a Mercedez-Benz with the driver inside before fleeing and letting the driver go.

The suspects were then seen in Watertown, where an exchange of dozens of rounds between the suspects and patrol officers ended with Tamerlan being shot. He was brought to Beth Israel Medical Center, where arrived under cardiac arrest and with multiple gunshot wounds and blast-like injuries to his chest, and died soon after his admission to the hospital. Dzhokar fled on foot from officers, leading to the manhunt that is currently underway.

Tamerlan was found with explosives on his body, and it is believed that Dzhokar has explosives on him as well.

Dzhokar had been living in Cambridge, Mass., with his older brother, and had been in the U.S. for about a decade. They both were from Chechnya, a state in southwestern Russia that has been plagued with Islamic insurgencies and separatist movements.

As a high school senior in May of 2011, Dzhokar received a $2,500 City of Cambridge scholarship to pursue higher education. While studying at the Cambridge Latin School, he had been a wrestler and was named a Greater Boston League Winter All Star in 2011.

The father of the brothers, Anzor Tsarnaev, spoke with the Associated Press over telephone from Makhachkala, Russia, on Friday after police informed him of Tamerlan’s death and the police manhunt for his younger son.

“My son is a true angel,” Anzor said. “Dzhokar is a second-year medical student in the U.S. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come home on holidays here.”