Boston Police reported Wednesday morning they have arrested three more people — college roommates of accused bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation. Boston Police released no additional details, except advising that there was no additional threat to public safety. The FBI had been investigating the three subjects for about 10 days.
First a tweet …
Three additional suspects taken into custody in Marathon bombing case. Details to follow.
— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) May 1, 2013
Tweet from Boston Police Department ahead of news release.
Later Boston Police release the following …
UPDATE: Boston Marathon Investigation
Please be advidsed that there is not threat to public safety. Three additional suspects have been taken into custody in connection to the attack on the Boston Marathon. Aside from the aforementioned, there is no additional info to release at this time. Additional details will be provided when they become available. No info available at this time relative to a press conference.— Boston Police Department (bpdnews.com)
Police and federal law officers allege Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother Tamerlan carried out the blasts that killed three and wounded more than 200. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a shootout with police after killing MIT police officer Sean Collier. Dzhokhar was arrested after a manhunt that ended when a resident reported a suspicious incident that turned out to be Dzhokhar hiding in his boat. Since his capture, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.
Media buzz has reported that Dzhokhar told them during questioning that he and his brother wanted to defend Islam after the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is also information that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was upset over “rejection by the United States” regarding his athletic boxing ambitions.
The brothers, ethnic Chechens who had been living in the U.S. for more than a decade with public aid up to $100,000, were seen on video at the marathon, and crowdsourcing of photos submitted by citizens captured images that put them in the place and time of the bombing. Investigators have been trying to determine if they received assistance from anyone else in the U.S. or abroad.
Relatives of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing will claim his body now that his wife has agreed to release it, an uncle said as officials in both Washington and Russia deepened their investigations into him and his ties.