Boston Suspect Month Before Attack: I Know How to Build a Bomb
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FBI(BOSTON) — Just a month before three people were killed and more than 260 others were injured when a pair of bombs ripped through the crowd near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev bragged to his friends that he knew how to build explosives, criminal complaints against three new suspects revealed Wednesday.
Buried in the footnotes of court documents filed against three friends of Dzhokhar’s is a reference to a chilling statement one of the friends, Azamat Tazhayakov, made to investigators in the days after the deadly attack.
“Tazhayakov also informed the FBI agents that while eating a meal with Dzhokhar and [friend Dias] Kadyrbayev approximately one month prior to the Marathon bombing, Dzhokhar had explained to Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov that he knew how to make a bomb,” the court documents say.
The statement was one of many new details to emerge Wednesday after authorities arrested 19-year-olds Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov and another friend, Robel Phillipos, for their alleged actions in the days after the bombing. All three appeared in a Boston court Wednesday afternoon.
Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice for purportedly trying to get rid of a laptop and backpack full of fireworks belonging to Dzhokhar after one of them realized Dzhokhar may be involved in the bombing. Phillipos was charged with making false statements to federal investigators.
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov face up to five years in prison and Phillipos faces a maximum sentence of up to eight years if convicted, the DOJ said.
Authorities and experts said both of the bombs that exploded April 15 were relatively unsophisticated devices, likely at least partially constructed based on instructions widely available on the Internet. Dzhokhar is accused of executing the attack with his older brother, Tamerlan, who authorities say may have been in contact with Islamic militants during a 2012 trip to Russia.
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