Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces 30 counts
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been indicted on 30 criminal counts by a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The jury has charged Tsarnaev for killing four people and using handmade bombs. 19 of the 30 counts carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Tsarnaev is one of two ethnic Chechen brothers accused of orchestrating the double bombings on April 15 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The Tsarnaevs are accused of setting off two homemade pressure-cooker bombs amid the crowd of thousands. The explosions killed three people and injured at least 264.
The Tsarnaevs laid low for three days afterward as the authorities reviewed tips and surveillance footage, but were formally identified after the FBI released photos on April 18 with the hope of obtaining public assistance.
The fourth murder victim was a university police officer, who died in a gun fight with the Tsarnaevs on April 19 as authorities rushed to apprehend them. Tamerlan died after that gunfight, just hours before his brother’s arrest. Police took Dzhokhar into custody on April 19 after finding him hiding in a boat in the backyard of a home in nearby Watertown, Massachusetts.
Tamerlan was buried in a rural Virginia cemetery, after a large amount of secrecy and protest.
Dzhokhar, who was badly injured in the gun battle that killed his brother, has been held in a prison hospital west of Boston since his capture.
