Car low on gas thwarted plan to bomb NY
Source: Agencies |
April 27, 2013, Saturday
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THE Boston Marathon bombers were headed for New York's Times Square to blow up the rest of their explosives, authorities said, in what they portrayed as a chilling, spur-of-the-moment scheme that fell apart when the brothers realized the car they had hijacked was low on gas.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother had decided spontaneously last week to drive to New York and launch an attack. In their stolen sport-utility vehicle, they had five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker explosive like the ones that blew up at the marathon, Kelly said.
"New York City was next on their list of targets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
The plan fell apart when the Tsarnaev brothers got into a shootout just outside Boston that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead, Kelly said.
"We don't know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston," Bloomberg said. "We're just thankful that we didn't have to find out that answer."
Dzhokhar, 19, is charged with carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 260, and he could get the death penalty.
He has been moved from a Boston hospital to a federal medical center about 65 kilometers west of the city, the US Marshals Service said yesterday.
Kelly said that days after the bombing, the Tsarnaev brothers "planned to ... detonate their remaining explosives in Times Square."
"They discussed this while driving around in a Mercedes SUV that they hijacked after they shot and killed the officer at MIT," the police commissioner said.
"That plan, however, fell apart when they realized that the vehicle they hijacked was low on gas and ordered the driver to stop at a nearby gas station." The driver escaped and called police, Kelly said. That set off the gun battle and manhunt that ended a day later with Dzhokhar captured and 26-year-old Tamerlan dead.
Investigators and lawmakers briefed by the FBI have said that the Tsarnaev brothers - ethnic Chechens from Russia who had lived in the United States for about a decade - were motivated by anger over the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother had decided spontaneously last week to drive to New York and launch an attack. In their stolen sport-utility vehicle, they had five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker explosive like the ones that blew up at the marathon, Kelly said.
"New York City was next on their list of targets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
The plan fell apart when the Tsarnaev brothers got into a shootout just outside Boston that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead, Kelly said.
"We don't know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston," Bloomberg said. "We're just thankful that we didn't have to find out that answer."
Dzhokhar, 19, is charged with carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 260, and he could get the death penalty.
He has been moved from a Boston hospital to a federal medical center about 65 kilometers west of the city, the US Marshals Service said yesterday.
Kelly said that days after the bombing, the Tsarnaev brothers "planned to ... detonate their remaining explosives in Times Square."
"They discussed this while driving around in a Mercedes SUV that they hijacked after they shot and killed the officer at MIT," the police commissioner said.
"That plan, however, fell apart when they realized that the vehicle they hijacked was low on gas and ordered the driver to stop at a nearby gas station." The driver escaped and called police, Kelly said. That set off the gun battle and manhunt that ended a day later with Dzhokhar captured and 26-year-old Tamerlan dead.
Investigators and lawmakers briefed by the FBI have said that the Tsarnaev brothers - ethnic Chechens from Russia who had lived in the United States for about a decade - were motivated by anger over the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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