Boston, MA
Hunting the Boston Marathon bombers: ‘Are you gonna kill me tonight?’
The panicked aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing that claimed three lives and wounded greater than 280 extra on April 15, 2013, left regulation enforcement officers scrambling for solutions — and preventing over whether or not or to not make public the identities of the radicalized bomber brothers, a brand new Netflix docuseries reveals.
“American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing,” out Wednesday, walks viewers step-by-step by way of the chaos that characterised these first, horrifying hours, and spotlights each forgotten and recent new particulars concerning the almost weeklong, dramatic efforts to catch the perpetrators.
With safety footage from the catastrophic second on the marathon end line arising empty, authorities wound up catching their first large break when an innocuous tip from a shutterbug snapping photos on the end line became a significant lead.
“We bought a telephone name from a member of the general public who stated ‘I used to be throughout the road and I’ve a few nonetheless photographs that you could be need’ … and the nonetheless shot confirmed a bag on the bottom,” FBI agent Kevin Swindon remembered.
The seemingly small reveal proved to be a unfastened thread that helped to unravel a complete terrorist plot — one which was speculated to culminate within the bombing of Instances Sq..
Discovering a needle in a haystack
Due to that one {photograph}, it took simply 24 hours for authorities to study the id of bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — a 19-year-old Bostonian and former highschool wrestling all-star, who had dropped the explosive crammed backpack.
Authorities have been in a position to pinpoint the precise location of the bag by matching it with surveillance footage. They observed suspicious habits from the person who dropped it — a useless giveaway Tsarnaev was their man.
“You see the concussive results of the primary bomb going off,” FBI Particular Agent in Cost Rick DesLauriers recalled. “All people on the digicam seems to the left and [Tsarnaev] shortly simply walks to the best.”
Footage was then retroactively retraced of the primary suspect, which led to the preliminary images of his brother and mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, seen collectively simply minutes previous to the lethal blasts.
Now, all authorities needed to do was catch them.
As an alternative, the nation watched and waited for that first day, after which one other day, whereas regulation enforcement labored each potential lead, all whereas arguing internally over whether or not or to not reveal the brothers’ identities to the general public.
“If you happen to launch the images of the bombers, you allow them to know that you recognize who they’re and also you would possibly trigger them to flee,” DesLauriers stated of the FBI’s choice to maintain quiet on the time.
The Boston Police Division — notably, Commissioner Ed Davis — felt otherwise.
“I used to be satisfied if we [ran the photos] these guys could be in our pocket inside a few hours — folks know who dedicated these crimes and can assist us,” Davis stated in an interview for the documentary. On the time, the commissioner warned each DesLauriers and US District Legal professional Carmen Ortiz that if anybody else was harm, he’d “go public.”
Ortiz sided with the FBI, however on Thursday of that week, regulation enforcement finally did launch photos of the Tsarnaev brothers — however solely after the knowledge had been leaked to the press.
Subsequent cease, Instances Sq.
Inside hours, the Tsarnaev brothers have been again on the radar — this time, for ambushing and killing MIT police officer Sean Collier in chilly blood, in an try to seize his service weapon whereas Collier was seated in his automotive. Quickly after, they ditched their very own car and hijacked a Mercedes-Benz SUV.
Their plan was to drive to New York, holding the SUV driver, Danny Meng, hostage. However nothing appeared to go proper.
First, there was the brothers’ unusual fixation with taking part in their very own music within the stolen automotive, based on documentary director Floyd Russ.
“Tamerlan didn’t know learn how to work the CD participant. He’d by no means been in a pleasant automotive like that,” Russ advised The Submit. “Danny describes [what they were listening to] as like a jihadist music, or Center Jap music.”
“I really bear in mind asking ‘are you gonna kill me tonight?’” Meng stated. “That’s after they stated ‘no, we’re not gonna kill you — we’re simply gonna drop you off at some place far-off the place no person can discover you.’”
Earlier than going wherever, nonetheless, the automotive wanted gasoline — the trio pulled right into a Shell station alongside the Charles River in Cambridge. With Dzhokhar out of the automotive, Meng managed to flee.
“I simply inform myself f – – ok it, I’ll do it. Thankfully I used to be in a position to unlock the seatbelt, unlock the automotive, after which pull the deal with,” Meng recalled. “I may really feel like [Tamerlan] was making an attempt to seize me together with his proper hand. It felt actually, actually shut.”
He desperately sprinted to a different gasoline station close by, pleading on his knees with the attendant to name for assist.
Within the interim, the terrorists sped off, but it surely was too late — not solely was the luxurious automotive comparatively straightforward to identify, Meng had his GPS monitoring quantity memorized.
“You get excited along with your first automotive,” Meng stated. “You bear in mind all the pieces.”
The shootout
Authorities in Cambridge have been shortly in a position to warn police subsequent door in Watertown {that a} stolen Mercedes was heading their means.
“It’s a carjacking is the way it got here out [on the radio] they usually stated they might be armed,” Watertown PD Sgt. Jeff Pugliese recalled.
Patrolman Joe Reynolds tailed the automotive to quiet, residential Laurel Road and waited for backup from Sgt. John MacLellan earlier than turning his lights on.
The bombers popped out their vehicles and opened fireplace on the officers, additionally tossing the pipe and strain cooker bombs they’d allegedly deliberate to detonate in Midtown Manhattan.
“The final bomb that was thrown … it was a strain cooker, one of many clips unclipped and it didn’t come as much as as a lot strain because it ought to have,” MacLellan says. “If he had positioned it as an alternative of throwing it, all of us would have been harm — we have been within the blast zone.”
Pugliese arrived on the scene with one other strategy — he flanked the bombers by reducing by way of the backyards of a row of homes alongside the road.
“I shot [Tamerlan] 9 occasions … he simply wouldn’t go down,” Pugliese says, describing the subsequent volley of gunfire like “a ‘Pulp Fiction’ second” as all of the return rounds missed him. “We made eye contact and he threw the gun — it hit me on the shoulder.”
Tamerlan then went to cost MacLellan however Pugliese managed to deal with him first. The previous near-Olympic boxer viciously resisted arrest because the pair struggled to subdue him.
The confrontation ended with Dzhokhar fleeing within the SUV — crushing his older brother’s physique below its wheels.
Tamerlan died shortly after.
That following morning, with Boston on lockdown as authorities swept the area in a determined bid to convey Dzhokhar to justice, a name got here from a house owner not removed from the now war-torn Laurel Road.
Dzhokhar, it turned out, had taken refuge beneath the tarp of a ship.
By early Saturday morning — and after an hours-long standoff with police who feared he had extra explosives — the surviving terrorist had surrendered.
Dzhokhar was sentenced to demise, and awaits his destiny in federal jail. His authorized group has tried a number of appeals to overturn the sentence over the previous decade — thus far, to no avail.
Only hours after Boston’s top prosecutor criticized federal immigration officials on Wednesday as “extraordinarily reckless” for detaining a man mid-trial last week, the U.S. Department of Justice responded in a series of remarkable letters and court filings.
U.S. Attorney of Massachusetts Leah Foley issued a strongly worded letter to a Boston judge who found an immigration agent in contempt of court on Monday.
“While you may disagree with the enforcement of our federal immigration laws, there is simply no legal basis for you to hold federal officers in criminal contempt for carrying out their sworn duties,” Foley wrote. “Any attempt or threat to interfere with the lawful functions of federal government agents will not be tolerated.”
Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville addresses the court room, while holding an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in contempt after he detained a suspect while he was on trial, Monday, March 31, 2025, in Boston. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP)AP
Foley, whose office operates under the U.S. Justice Department, also said that federal officials moved to vacate the order of contempt entered against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent by the Boston Municipal Court.
Earlier on Wednesday, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden described the situation as unprecedented when ICE apprehended a man in the middle of a trial on charges of falsifying RMV records.
Hayden said his office was investigating ICE agent Brian Sullivan after Judge Mark Summerville found him in contempt of court for interfering with the trial.
“We have a lot to go over in this case before we can determine exactly how it is we’re going to proceed,” he said.
In a separate letter addressed to Hayden, Foley strongly disagreed and called on him to “cease from entertaining or pursuing any charges” against the ICE officer or any other federal official.
“The fact that you disfavor ICE officers doing their jobs is not a basis for criminal charges,” Foley wrote to the district attorney. She said there is “no legal basis for such charges.”
“Rather than attacking the brave men and women enforcing laws of the United States, I urge you to work with us to identify, prosecute, and remove the criminals who break them,” Foley wrote.
Wilson Martell-Lebron, the 49-year-old man who was detained, had been at the Edward W. Brooke courthouse on Thursday for his first day of trial on falsifying RMV records, when he was taken by plainclothes ICE agents outside the courthouse.
Martell-Lebron is a citizen of the Dominican Republic who entered the country illegally and has no lawful status, according to a court filing by the Department of Homeland Security.
ICE officials first found a basis to remove him in October 2007, the filing states.
Foley said that he is in the country illegally, had prior arrests for serious drug trafficking offenses and was arrested pursuant to a valid federal warrant.
Court filings described how federal agents detained Martell-Lebron on Thursday. Sullivan, the ICE agent, was summonsed for the trial to testify and once the day’s proceedings ended, agents grabbed Martell-Lebron after he left the courthouse through a back exit.
Martell-Lebron “took a couple quick steps in the opposite direction before officers were able to seize him and make the arrest.”
This family photo provided by attorney’s shows Wilson Martell-Lebron. (Family photo/Erkan & Sullivan, PC via AP)AP
Foley said Wednesday that Sullivan and ICE’s actions were carried out lawfully.
“Our motion is clear: the state court lacked authority to issue the unlawful and erroneous order,” Foley wrote.
She cited the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution that immunizes federal officers from state prosecution for actions taken in the course of their official duties.
At the press conference on Wednesday, Hayden criticized ICE’s operations not only with Martell-Lebron, but across the city — and revealed the alarming effect the public’s fear has had on Boston courtrooms.
“ICE routinely claims that their actions are improving public safety in Boston, and I’m here today to tell you and to say that they are doing the exact opposite,” Hayden said.
“We’re now finding witnesses reluctant to cooperate with investigators, due to fear of ICE … We are seeing victims refuse to provide information about crimes against them, due to fear of ICE,” Hayden said.
Summerville, the Boston judge, said he found ICE agent Sullivan in contempt of the court after he committed “intentional and egregious violations of the defendant’s rights” by not allowing due process and a fair trial. Summerville referred the case to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office for an investigation.
On Monday, the judge also dismissed Martell-Lebron’s RMV case due to prosecutorial misconduct.
Multiple people remain in the hospital Wednesday after being hit by a box truck that apparently went out of control in Boston’s Chinatown on Tuesday afternoon.
An investigation is ongoing Wednesday.
The crash happened on the corner of Kneeland Street and Harrison Avenue, with the truck ending up wedged between Tora Ramen and a telephone pole.
Six people were injured, and four were transported to the hospital — including the driver of the Penske truck that lost control and crashed.
One of those patients is in critical condition at last check.
Four people, including the driver, were hospitalized after a crash in Chinatown.
Investigators tell us they’re looking into the possibility that the driver may have had a medical issue, as they believe he had a previously diagnosed medical condition.
Surveillance video shows the truck — that was rented out to a commercial trucking company – heading westbound on Kneeland Street moments before the accident.
Witnesses say they tried to help the driver who was trapped in the truck, and the others who were injured, as soon as they heard the crash.
“Preliminary investigation seems to indicate that this seems to be more of a tragic accident,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said.
Building inspectors are expected to check on the structural integrity of the building that was hit.
The Boston Celtics listed Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday as “questionable” ahead of their Wednesday night matchup against the Miami Heat. Al Horford is listed as “doubtful.”
Brown, averaging 22.4 points for the season, is dealing with right knee posterior impingement. Porzingis, who averages 19 points and seven rebounds, is dealing with “return from illness reconditioning.” Two-time champion Jrue Holiday is dealing with a right shoulder impingement. Five-time All-Star Al Horford is dealing with a big toe sprain.
The Heat remain without Andrew Wiggins, Duncan Robinson, Kevin Love and Nikola Jovic.
Here’s the rest of the injury report and game preview:
HEAT
Alec Burks: Available – Back
Andrew Wiggins: Out – Hamstring
Duncan Robinson: Out – Back
Kevin Love: Out – Personal Reasons
Nikola Jovic: Out – Hand
Dru Smith: Out – Achilles
CELTICS
Jaylen Brown: Questionable – Knee
Kristaps Porzingis: Questionable – Return from illness
Jrue Holiday: Questionable – Shoulder
Al Horford: Doubtful – Toe
Game time: 7:30 p.m., TD Garden, Boston
Betting line: N/A
VITALS: : The Heat and Celtics meet for the fourth and final regular season matchup this season. The Heat lost all three matchups, (89-108 in Dec., 85-103 in February and 91-103 in mid-March). The Heat lost all three to the Celtics last season before their eventual first round elimination in the same season. The Heat are 53-86 all-time versus the Celtics during the regular season, including 30-42 in home games and 22-44 in road games.
PROJECTED STARTERS
HEAT
G Tyler Herro
G Alec Burks
C Kel’el Ware
F Pelle Larsson
F Bam Adebayo
CELTICS
G Payton Pritchard
G Derrick White
C Xavier Tillman Sr.
F Sam Hauser
F Jayson Tatum
QUOTABLE
Heat guard Tyler Herro: “I feel like since I’ve been on the Heat, that’s how we’ve always been at our best, just the ball popping. We used to say the ball has magic to it when it’s moving and finding the energy, finding open guys, open spots. I thought we came out really intentional, sharing the ball and just letting the ball find open guys.”
Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at toledoalexander22@gmail.com. Twitter: @tropicalblanket
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