A member of a NYPD Hercules team stands in Times Square while on patrol in New York yesterday.
BOSTON: Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved to a prison medical centre from the hospital where he had been held since his arrest a week ago while recovering from gunshot wounds, US officials said yesterday.
The 19-year-old ethnic Chechen, wounded in a night-time shootout with police on April 18 hours after authorities released pictures of him and his older brother as suspects, was formally charged on Monday and could face the death penalty if convicted. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout.
New York City officials said that Dzhokhar told investigators in the hospital that after the FBI released their pictures, the pair made an impromptu plan to drive to New York and set off more bombs in Times Square.
Overnight, authorities moved Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, where some of the victims were also being treated. Devens is about 63km west of Boston.
The prison specialises in inmates who need long-term medical or mental health care, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. It currently holds about 1,000 prisoners.
The brothers are also suspected of shooting Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26, on April 18 and then hijacking a man in a car, which they planned to drive to New York. Their plan was foiled when the car, a Mercedes sport-utility vehicle, ran low on fuel and they stopped to refuel, giving the man a chance to escape.
Their carjacking victim was a 26-year-old of Chinese origin who goes by the American nickname “Danny,” the Boston Globe reported. The newspaper did not publish his full name at his request. “I don’t want to die,” the man recalled thinking as the brothers drove him around for some 90 minutes, making banal small talk, according to an interview with the Globe. “I have a lot of dreams that haven’t come true yet.”
Danny, who is trained as an engineer, kept the brothers calm by playing up his outsider status, although at first they were puzzled by his Chinese accent, the Globe said. After determining that the victim was Chinese, Tamerlan Tsarnaev identified himself as a Muslim, the newspaper reported.
“Chinese are very friendly to Muslims!” Danny said, according to the Globe. “We are so friendly to Muslims.”
Reuters
