Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old accused in the Boston Marathon bombings was so well-liked that many of his friends say they’d be willing to testify on his behalf at trial.
The teen, who was naturalized as an American citizen on Sept. 11, 2012, is in police custody in a Boston hospital after surrendering Friday night. His brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a firefight with police a day earlier.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press on Saturday released a photo of police searching the younger suspect as he lay on the ground following his dramatic capture.
The brothers came to America with their family a decade ago and the younger Dzhokhar appears to have adapted to life in the U.S. better than his brother. Tamerlan, a boxer who aspired to make the Olympics, once told a photographer shooting a photo essay on him that he didn’t understand Americans and didn’t have a single American friend.
But Dzhokhar was liked by people who knew him. Many were stunned to learn he was a suspect in the Monday bombing that killed three people and injured more than 176 near the finish line of the race. They expressed thoughts that the elder Tamerlan may have had a bad influence on him.
San, a college classmate who refused to give his last name to The New York Times, called Dzhokhar smart, though he struggled once he got to college, failing several courses, including Principles of Modern Chemistry, Intro to American Politics and Chemistry and the Environment.
San said he would be willing to testify on Dzhokhar’s behalf.
“I feel like all of his friends would do that,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing
released infrared photographs of Dzhokhar hiding in a boat where he was apprehended Friday night after being on the run for 20 hours.
The photos show the suspect lying in the bottom of the vessel on the starboard, or right, side. The boat was parked on a trailer behind a home in Watertown. The owner saw the suspect when he went outside and noticed something amiss. He put a ladder next to the boat and noticed blood. When he looked underneath a boat cover he saw the suspect’s legs and ran back into his house to call police, who quickly swarmed the area.
One photo shows the ladder still leaning against the boat. In another, the ladder is lying on the ground. In the second image, the suspect’s legs can clearly be seen closer to the front of the boat, making his head pointed toward the back.
A non-infrared image published in the
New York Post shows a police vehicle using a boom to inspect the boat.
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