Boston suspect died of gunshots, trauma

WASHINGTON, USA (UPDATED) – The Boston marathon suspect killed while trying to flee police died of gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, US media said Friday, May 3.

News reports quoted a death certificate issued for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the alleged mastermind of the April 15 bombings that left 3 dead. It was the first official word of what caused his death.

Meanwhile, the lone surviving suspect of the Boston bombings, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he and his brother initially planned to stage the attack on the Fourth of July. 

In a report by the New York Times on Friday, May 3, Dzhokhar told the FBI that they initially considered staging a suicide attack but eventually decided on using pressure-cooker bombs and other homemade explosive devices. 

“The brothers finished building the bombs in Tamerlan’s apartment in Cambridge, Mass., faster than they had anticipated, and so decided to accelerate their attack to the Boston Marathon on April 15, Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts, according to the account that Dzhokhar provided to authorities. They picked the finish line of the marathon after driving around the Boston area looking for alternative sites, according to this account,” the Times reported.

CBS News and other US outlets also reported that Tamerlan’s death certificate was read out by a Boston-area funeral home director named Peter Stefan.

Police have said Tamerlan Tsarnaev was wounded during a shootout with police 3 days after the bombing, then was struck by a car driven by his younger brother Dzhokhar, who sped from the scene.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured later that same day, while hiding in a boat parked outside a house in suburban Boston. – Rappler.com