Officials say Boston suspect had no firearm when barrage of bullets hit hiding place

[DonViejo]

Source: WaPo



Although police feared he was heavily armed, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings had no firearms when he came under a barrage of police gunfire that struck the boat where he was hiding, according to multiple federal law enforcement officials.

Authorities said they were desperate to capture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev so he could be questioned. The FBI , however, declined to discuss what triggered the gunfire.

Other law enforcement officials said the shooting may have been prompted by the chaos of the moment and some action that led the officers present to believe Tsarnaev had fired a weapon or was about to detonate explosives.




Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/officials-boston-suspect-had-no-firearm-when-barrage-of-bullets-hit-hiding-place/2013/04/24/376fc8a0-ad18-11e2-a8b9-2a63d75b5459_story.html

[jakeXT]

1. See also SWAT interview

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1017114211

[snappyturtle]

2. 105 views at writing and no replies. I guess we're all at a loss for words.

I figured he wasn't armed because he would have shot at
the man who found him...I would think, but that's just me.

[thesquanderer]

6. I thought he might have been asleep

when the guy first found him in the boat.

[snappyturtle]

10. I thought he was definitely resting but asleep? Too much adrenaline

would keep him ever vigilant, I think. imho

[thesquanderer]

20. How many hours had it been since he'd slept?

Adrenaline or no, at some point, the desire to sleep is overwhelming.

[Myrina]

31. Especially if he had been shot in the prior event ...

... cops said they knew he was nearby because of "a pool of blood" behind one house in that neighborhood and on the tarp of the boat ... sustained bleeding tends to make one a tic exhausted.

He may even have been in shock, depending on how many/how severe the bullet wound(s) were.

I figured he was partially or completely passed out. Had the boat owner not found him then, he'd probably be finding a corpse when they took it out of storage for the first time.

[marble falls]

3. Oops. He must have just been glad to see you fellas. Nothing helps clear up a situation...

like a shot to pieces and dead suspect. I heard the volley news video. How in the heck did they not kill him????

[geek tragedy]

4. cue the 'police brutality' accusations in 3 .....2....1......nt

[Fearless]

33. Makes me wonder where the line is

Between "justified police brutality" and "police brutality".

You can't have it both ways. I'm not saying it is or isn't. But it EITHER is OR isn't. There is no in between.

[kestrel91316]

5. Did they try and fail to Dorner him after all??

He did kill a cop. Maybe they were trying for a little street justice instead of a capture??

[Marrah_G]

8. No

They were very clear about wanting to take him alive. They were incredibly careful and professional in trying to make that happen.

[kestrel91316]

24. I am not sure how that jives with a boat so full of holes

it looks like swiss cheese, though.........

[Marrah_G]

25. I believe most if not all were caused by rubber bullets

I was listening to the scanner. They were yelling for no one to fire live rounds, that they were firing rubber bullets.

They did not know if he was alive, they were trying to get him to move, they didn't know if there was a bombs so they couldn't just walk up to the boat and check, they also knew there was 20 gallons of gas in the boat.

These cops were very concerned about bringing him out alive and with no one else getting hurt.

I think it's very easy to make judgments off news clips.

Also the video of the house on Oak st. I finally had to start hiding threads because it was so frustrating. I was listening as they were going to the house on oak st. They pulled everyone out because they had seen suspicious looking activity in the windows and I believe that is one of the houses that they saw a young man in a hoodie duck into a basement door. They didn't know who was in the house. There was alot of young men. They did what they do in hostage situations and pulled the people out one at a time, hands up, guns drawn and frisked/ID'd them.

At this point I feel like I am banging my head on a wall. If people (not aimed at you my friend) want to think the cops acted like horrible gestapo and that the city was under martial law under threat of being terminated by our nazi-like National Guard............. then there just isn't anything left that I can say.

I listened to this all unfold. I turned OFF the news because they were so fucking wrong and ten minutes late while also being wrong.

And one final thought: About an hour before this ended I was hearing troopers/cops calling for someone to replace them because they were past the 18 hour straight on duty mark.... and yet people are pissed off that they had a place to get COFFEE.......

I am off to bed........big day tomorrow. Taking my daughter to the neurologist to get the test results and some answers to her sudden inset migraines and bulging ( for lack of a better word) optical nerves. Wish us luck

[flying rabbit]

28. good luck

and thanks for the info.

[kestrel91316]

35. If rubber bullets can do that to a boat, they're

just as bad as live rounds IMHO. They CAN and DO kill.

I guess living with LAPD and their thuggish behavior for decades has left me a bit jaded about police in general.

Good luck with your daughter. That doesn't sound good.

[marions ghost]

38. thanks for this

seems a reasonable scenario

[twinker]

36. It wouldn't surprise me if D. Tsarnaew will have the same fate like Lee Harvey Oswald

dead before process

[Marrah_G]

7. A good chunk of that shooting heard on TV were rubber bullets

( I was listening to the scanner) They were trying to see if he would move to see if he was alive. They didn't want to walk up on it because he could have had a bomb.

[Sunlei]

9. he had no weapons in the boat? ok then all the holes in that boat were from police.

Sounds like they wanted him dead.

I am still shocked that the police did not have a tracking dog to track a simple novice track from a bleeding suspect 150 yards. a puppy just starting to learn to track could have ran that hot track with ease.

[George II]

11. Unbelievable...what makes you come to THAT conclusion?

If they wanted him dead he would have been dead. Period!

If you were a cop in that situation, would you ask him to pretty please come out? They killed three people earlier in the week, killed another the night before.

Would you take a chance and approach him thinking he DIDN'T have a gun?

Amazing what kind of reactions people have around here. I'll bet many DUers felt sorry for Saddam Hussein when he was captured!

[Sunlei]

14. I don't feel sorry for those murderers. Of course they didn't take a chance aproaching him!

They sent in a robot first and he climbed out of the boat on his own. By the reports now he didn't fire any shots, the police did.

I find it offensive you would even say someone 'feels sorry' for a dumbass, over religious, mass murderer.

[Gore1FL]

12. They used non lethal weapons

rubber bullets and flash bangs.

[Sunlei]

18. good. thanks. wish the headline said rubber bullets.

[FailureToCommunicate]

22. Does the article claim non lethal was used? I couldn't find that. And would rubber bullets from

a distance make all those holes in the boat? Or the wounds he got? Still much to sort out...

[Gore1FL]

23. He was injured from the night before.

They were using real bullets then because they were in a firefight.

There was potential national security information to be had by keeping him alive. Ultimately, there was not, but that was good thing to know, too. That doesn't mean their motives were or were not altruistic. I don't mean to argue that. Value was to be had by getting answers from him. To that end, they were purposefully successful.

I do agree, we are not privy to all the details. It's hard to criticize the outcome.

[Marrah_G]

26. The news isn't saying it. The cops were saying it.... that day, on the scene...

We heard it on the scanner. A number of us were listening to this entire thing play out. The news was wrong wrong wrong.

The cops were yelling into the radios for no one to fire their weapons, that the shots they were hearing were rubber bullets and for no officer to fire a live round.

[vj87]

13. How did he manage this...

I thought he shot himself in the neck/head? After engaging in another gunfight with police that left him bloodied (as per photo of him being searched)

Quite hard to shoot yourself/others if unarmed right?

[Sunlei]

15. in that gunfight they threw a pressure cook. bomb that exploded 20 feet away.

and fused pipe bombs and gunfire from both sides.
Hospital report said wounds both legs, head, neck and hands. We're just lucky we have him alive to answer questions and be brought to justice.

[LisaL]

17. Obviously he didn't shot himself if he didn't have a gun.

That was false.

[Marrah_G]

27. There are lots of reports that are just wrong

wait for the official reports to come out, after the investigation is done.

[LisaL]

16. Well he certainly didn't try to commit suicide then.

That was a bogus story if I ever saw one.

[Raven]

19. I think I read that the boat owner said there was a gun

when he saw him under the tarp. Perhaps he communicated that to the police.

[John2]

21. You sure the boat owner claimed he saw a gun?

I'm pretty shocked at this new information because I thought the initial reports was he fired at them and they returned it. I was wondering how he was able to do that considering the condition they found him in. Nevertheless, I'm glad they took him alive. It would be interesting to know what kind of weapons they had, other than hand guns that were reported. The initial reports were, they were sent here to kill people and might have some foreign military training. Neither of those statements have been proven so far. These guys maybe no different than McVeigh and Nichols. There are people and politicians in this country want this to turn out somethingelse other than home grown. Just listen to this Tom Cotton of Arkansas. The rightwing propaganda machine is again spinning at full throttle. Lets see how many Americans will be sucked in again.

[Raven]

30. John, I just reread the interview and I was wrong, the boat

owner did not mention anything about a gun. Here is a link to the interview: http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/metro/Watertown-boat-owner-David-Henneberry-tells-story-of-finding-Boston-Marathon-suspect/-/11971628/19863572/-/mpx0qq/-/index.html

[avaistheone1]

29. k&r

[Evergreen Emerald]

32. Why does it need to be a fair fight?

He shot at the police earlier, threw bombs at them, ran them over with his car, killed a cop, hijacked a car, oh...and blew up dozens of people, killing three.

Police do not need to match fire power. If so, they could have legitimate had a rocket launcher.

The officers at the time, did not know what you know now. Their job was to stop the terrorist who killed, went on a rampage, and will likely continue to kill if not stopped.

[FailureToCommunicate]

34. Yes, but their job was also **try** to catch suspect alive. Blasting away at the boat

would seem to make that outcome less likely. (And yes I know there were unconfirmed reports from scanner chatter that rubber bullets were used.)
I still think they/we got lucky the suspect wasn't killed right there.

[Marrah_G]

39. That unconfirmed chatter comes from a number of long time DU members

It was CLEARLY rubber bullets and it was CLEAR that they were ordering all the other officer NOT to shoot.

Frankly its clear that you have made up your mind that the local police here are nothing but stormtroopers so nothing any of us say are going to mess with your version of reality.

I'm done.

[FailureToCommunicate]

41. You would give up that easily on a fellow Bostonian, and DU-er? What happened to

Last edited Thu Apr 25, 2013, 10:31 PM - Edit history (1)

'Boston Strong' ?

The reality is that even if the confirmed reports are from long time DU folks they are only in the end relying on reports. I have not "made up my mind" as you say. I am curious and ready to take in new info as it dribbles out. It is odd that details are being revealed that way...

And, in case you think I am from somewhere else in the country, I'm local. You know, Boston.

[Marrah_G]

42. Sorry been really frustrated with all the crap this week

I started hiding threads a few days ago and should have just walked away from this one too.

peace

And thank you for the update from the commissioner. That would explain why the person in command was yelling about no one firing. He was really, really forceful about it.

[randome]

37. These look like impact points, not bullet holes, to me.

Ergo, rubber bullets sound more likely, IMO.

[warrprayer]

40. yep

looks like it to me too!



oops, wrong picture!