Friend Testifies He Gave Gun to Alleged Boston Bomber

FBI(BOSTON) — A long-time friend of the alleged Boston Marathon bomber testified in court Tuesday that he gave Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the gun later used in the shooting death of an MIT police officer.

Stephen Silva, 21, told the court that he would consider Tsarnaev “one of my best friends.”

Silva is currently in prison after he was the subject of an undercover federal drug investigation last year and signed a plea deal with the government.

While wearing a beige prison jumpsuit, Silva testified that two months before the bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line, he gave Tsarnaev a 9-millimeter handgun that had an “obliterated” serial number.

The gun was later used in the fatal shooting of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, according to prosecutors, and during a shootout between Tsarnaev and police.

Tsarnaev, Silva said, told him he wanted to use the gun “for a rip” — a robbery.

Silva also testified about an incident in high school, when a teacher asked if terrorism is ever justifiable.

Silva testified that Tsarnaev said, “American foreign policy tends to be hostile…trying to take over people’s culture.”

Defense lawyers used the opportunity to elicit testimony that backed up their assertion that Tsarnaev was under the influence of his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and that he was not himself a committed terrorist.

Under questioning by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense attorney, Miriam Conrad, Silva said that Tsarnaev “talked religion not in depth, not all the time” and described the suspect as not-violent and well liked. Conrad also emphasized that the pair enjoyed “typical teenage things,” like jumping off cliffs at a local reservoir.

In one dramatic moment, Silva was reminded by Conrad that Tsarnaev once told him, “You don’t want to meet my brother.”

“He said his brother was very strict, very opinionated,” Silva testified. “And that since I wasn’t a Muslim he might give me a little s*** for that.”

A new picture was also introduced at the trial showing Tsarnaev posing under a black flag with white and black Arabic writing. Similar flags have sometimes been associated with jihad, but this has not been independently confirmed by ABC News.

The prosecution claimed the flag hung in Tsarnaev’s bedroom.

Tsarnaev faces the death penalty for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people. Collier was killed days later.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to the 30 counts against him, including charges of using a “weapon of mass destruction resulting in death,” but his defense attorney has said that he participated in the bombing.

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