During opening statements Wednesday morning in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Assistant US Attorney William Weinreb revealed new details of the bombing and its aftermath that will be part of the government’s case against Tsarnaev.
Tsarnaev, 21, faces 30 charges in US District Court in Boston, including 17 that carry the possibility of the death penalty, for his alleged role in the detonation of two bombs near the Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. Three people were killed and more than 260 others were injured.
Here are some of the new details:
• Weinreb provided graphic descriptions of how each of three victims died, saying Martin Richard “bled to death on the sidewalk,” Lingzi Lu had the “inside of her stomach pouring out,” and Krystle Campbell was left with “gaping holes” in her body. Richard’s arm was blown almost entirely off his body.
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• Weinreb said Tsarnaev began reading terrorist writings as early as 2011 and had hidden his increasingly radical Islamic views from his friends. He privately “read terrorist writings and ... terrorist lectures,’’ Weinreb told jurors. And after a year or two of reading and listening to the materials, he became radicalized, Weinreb said.
• Twenty minutes after the bombing that caused so much carnage, Weinreb said, Tsarnaev went to a Whole Foods grocery store in Cambridge, where surveillance video showed him pondering what type of milk to buy.
• A 9mm Ruger provided to Tsarnaev by his friend and classmate from Cambridge Rindge and Latin, Stephen Silva, was the gun used to kill MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, though it’s not clear from surveillance footage whether it was Tsarnaev or his brother who shot Collier. The brothers attempted to steal Collier’s gun but were unable to remove it from the holster.
• Silva will testify that he gave the gun to Tsarnaev, his former classmate.
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• Collier, who was sitting in his police cruiser, was shot twice in the side of the head, once between the eyes, and once in the hand, Weinreb said.
• Investigators say they found bloodied gloves in Tsarnaev’s Honda Civic that had DNA matching Collier’s.