Tamerlan Tsarnaev

The Tsarnaev family was forcibly moved from Chechnya to the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in the years following World War II. The Tsarnaevs had two daughters As children, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lived in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan. In 2001, the Tsarnaev family moved to Makhachkala, Dagestan, in the Russian Federation. ==Activities prior to Boston Marathon bombing==

2003–2007 According to Tsarnaev's immigration file, he received his visa at the U.S. consulate in Ankara, Turkey and was admitted to the United States in 2003. After arriving in the U.S., he attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school. He applied for admission at the University of Massachusetts Boston for the fall of 2006, but was rejected. He attended Bunker Hill Community College part-time for three terms between 2006 and 2008, studying accounting with hopes of becoming an engineer. He dropped out of school to concentrate on boxing. 2008 In 2008, Tsarnaev's mother urged him to embrace Islam because she was concerned about his drinking, smoking, and pursuit of women. She said he began to read more about it on the Internet. the mosque has condemned terrorism and would later ask Tsarnaev to stop attending because he interrupted the Friday sermon. The case was dismissed for lack of prosecution. Tsarnaev dated Katherine Russell of North Kingstown, Rhode Island on and off while she attended Suffolk University from 2007 to 2010. The Tsarnaev brothers' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, said he "had been concerned about his nephew being an extremist since 2009". Tsarni said that Tsarnaev's radicalization started not during his visit to Russia in January 2012, but much earlier in Boston after he was influenced by a Muslim convert known as "Misha". "Misha" was later identified as Mikhail Allakhverdov, a 39-year-old from Rhode Island (of Armenian-Ukrainian origin, born in Azerbaijan). Allakhverdov told The New York Review of Books that he rejected violence, was not Tsarnaev's teacher, had not spoken to Tamerlan in three years and had never met his family members. Furthermore, he said that he had cooperated with a brief FBI investigation that the NYRB reported had found no ties between Allakhverdov and the attacks. while remarking that he "didn't understand" Americans and did not have any American friends. He added that he abstained from drinking and smoking, because "God says no to alcohol" and that "there are no values anymore. People can't control themselves". Rule changes disqualified all non-US citizens from Golden Gloves boxing, ending Tsarnaev's boxing career and Olympic hopes. In the spring of 2010, Katherine Russell became pregnant with Tsarnaev's child. Russell dropped out of college at the end of her junior year and married Tsarnaev on June 21, 2010, in a 15-minute ceremony in an office at the Masjid Al Quran in the Dorchester area of Greater Boston. The couple's daughter was born in October 2010. Tsarnaev first came to the attention of Russian security forces in December 2010 when William Plotnikov was briefly detained in Dagestan and forced to disclose his social networking contacts in North America with ties to Russia. 2011 In early 2011, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Tsarnaev was a follower of Islamic extremism. The FSB said that he was preparing to leave the United States to travel to the Russian region to join unspecified underground groups. The FBI initially denied that it had contacted Tsarnaev, but then confirmed that it had after Tsarnaev's mother talked about the FBI's contacts with her son on RT. The FBI said that it interviewed him and relatives of his, but did not find any terrorist activity. Tsarnaev's mother said that FBI agents had told her they feared her son was an "extremist leader", and that he was getting information from "extremist sites". She said Tsarnaev had been under FBI surveillance for at least three years and that "they were controlling every step of him". The FBI denied this accusation. Tsarnaev "vaguely discussed" jihad during a 2011 phone call with his mother that was taped by the FSB, and intelligence officials also discovered text messages in which his mother discussed how he was ready to die for Islam. In late 2011, the Central Intelligence Agency put both Tsarnaev and his mother on its Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database. Alleged involvement in Waltham triple murder Two Jewish men, Erik Weissman and Raphael Teken, as well as their roommate Brendan Mess, were killed in a triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts on September 11, 2011. It was reported on April 23, 2013 that local authorities believed Tsarnaev may have been responsible for the triple homicide, and that they and the FBI were investigating the possibility. A search warrant affidavit that was partially unsealed in November 2019 provided further details about Tsarnaev's alleged connection to the crime. 2012 Visit to Russia Tsarnaev traveled to Russia through Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport in January 2012, and returned to the U.S. in July 2012. U.S. House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said he believed that Tsarnaev received training during his trip and became radicalized. In an early report, Dagestan's interior minister Abdurashid Magomedov said through a spokesman that Tsarnaev "did not have contact with the [Islamist] underground during his visit". Tsarnaev's maternal third cousin, Magomed Kartashov, is a figure in Dagestan's Islamist community. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva confirmed that they "became very close." Kartashov's Islamist organization, "The Union of the Just," advocates Islam as a political system under sharia law. Kartashov later stated the Boston bombing was "good" in that it would increase converts to Islam similarly to the attacks of September 11. According to media reports, Tsarnaev was seen by Dagestan police, who were conducting surveillance, making six visits to a known Islamic militant in a Salafi mosque in Makhachkala founded by an associate of Ayman Zawahiri. According to Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, quoting unnamed Russian security sources, Tsarnaev was linked to 23-year-old William Plotnikov, an ethnic Russian-Tatar Islamic militant and Canadian citizen, with whom he communicated via online social networking sites. Once in Dagestan, Tsarnaev is said to have met on several occasions with Makhmud Mansur Nidal, a 19-year-old Dagestani-Palestinian man. Nidal was under close surveillance by Dagestan's anti-extremism unit for six months as a suspected recruiter for Islamist insurgents before the police killed him. In an interview, Tsarnaev's father later said he had to force his son to return to the United States to complete his U.S. citizenship application after Tsarnaev tried to convince his family to allow him to stay in Dagestan for good. Return to U.S. Tsarnaev returned to the U.S. on July 17, 2012, having grown a long, thick beard and wearing kohl around his eyes as a sign of his religious devotion to Sunni Islam and the prophet Muhammad. His life took on an "increasingly puritanical religious tone" with "Islamist certainty". After his return to the U.S., Tsarnaev created a YouTube channel with playlist links to two videos which were tagged under a category labeled "Terrorists", including one to Dagestani Islamic militant Amir Abu Dujana (Gadzhimurad Dolgatov, also known as 'Robin Hood', a commander of a small group in the Kizilyurt district, who was killed in battle in late December 2012); the videos were later deleted. CNN and the SITE Institute found a screen grab of one of the videos, which featured members of the militant Islamist group Caucasus Emirate from the North Caucasus. He frequently read extremist sites, including Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's Inspire online magazine. Tsarnaev was pulled over by police in Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge at least nine times in four years. In November 2012, Tsarnaev reportedly confronted a shopkeeper at a Middle Eastern grocery store in Cambridge near a mosque where he sometimes prayed after seeing a sign there advertising Thanksgiving turkeys. He said "This is kuffar"—an Arabic reference to non-Muslims—"that's not right!" Also in November 2012, Tsarnaev stood up and challenged a sermon in which the speaker said that, just like "we all celebrate the birthday of the Prophet, we can also celebrate July 4 and Thanksgiving," according to Yusufi Vali, a mosque spokesman. On February 6, 2013, Tsarnaev reportedly purchased 48 mortars containing explosive powder at a store in Seabrook, New Hampshire. On April 14, 2013, the day before the bombings, Tsarnaev reportedly received electronic IED components that were sent to him by mail; he had ordered the components online. ==2013 Boston Marathon bombing and aftermath==

According to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, he and Tamerlan Tsarnaev used pressure cooker bombs to commit the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. One bomb was placed at the Boston Marathon finish line, while the other was placed outside the Forum restaurant. The bombs were detonated at 2:49 pm. At 5:00p.m. on April 18, 2013, the FBI released images of two suspects carrying backpacks and requested the public's help in identifying them. As seen on video, the suspects stayed to observe the chaos after the explosions, then walked away casually. The public sent authorities a deluge of photographs and videos. Hours after the FBI released their photos, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev visited their family's apartment in Cambridge. There, they obtained five improvised explosive devices (IEDs), ammunition, a semiautomatic handgun, and a machete. The two brothers then drove to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On April 18, 2013 at 10:25 p.m., the Tsarnaev brothers ambushed Sean A. Collier of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Department and shot him six times. Collier, aged 27, was seated in his police car near Building 32 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. He died shortly after the shooting. The brothers then carjacked a Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev took the vehicle's owner, Chinese national Dun "Danny" Meng (), hostage and informed him that he (Tsarnaev) was responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing and for shooting Collier. The Tsarnaev brothers forced Meng to use his ATM cards to obtain $800 in cash (equivalent to $ in ). They transferred objects to the Mercedes-Benz and one brother followed it in their Civic, for which an all-points bulletin was issued. The Tsarnaev brothers then drove to a Shell gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge to purchase gasoline for the long drive to Times Square. While Dzhokhar went inside the Shell station to pay for food, Meng--fearing that the suspects would harm him during the trip--escaped from the Mercedes, ran across the street to a Mobil gas station, and asked a clerk to call 911. Meng's cell phone remained in the Mercedes; this allowed the police to track the phone and focus their search on Watertown. Death After being spotted by a police officer, An estimated 200 to 300 shots were fired. The suspects shot 56 times, detonated at least one pressure cooker bomb, and threw five "crude grenades", three of which exploded. According to Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau, the brothers had an "arsenal of guns". Tamerlan Tsarnaev was wounded by gunfire. Tamerlan eventually ran out of ammunition and threw his empty Ruger pistol at Watertown PD Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese, who then tackled him with assistance from Sergeant MacLellan. Dzhokhar then drove the stolen SUV toward Tamerlan and the police, who unsuccessfully tried to drag Tamerlan out of the car's path and handcuff him. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was struck by the vehicle his brother was driving and pulled into the wheel well. Due to his brother's attempt to speed away, Tsarnaev was rapidly and violently dragged between the ground and the bottom of the car. One officer commented that the entirety of the right side of his upper torso was blown open by the force, while his chest and face were crushed and battered against the ground. He was dragged approximately 20 yards before disconnecting from the wheel well, and he was then thrown into the middle of the road before police arrested him. Paramedic Michael Sullivan, who treated Tsarnaev after the shootout, stated that Tsarnaev angrily resisted medical treatment as he was being driven to the hospital; Sullivan asserted that he lifted himself from the stretcher and screamed loudly. Tamerlan was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where, despite efforts to revive him, he was pronounced dead from blood loss and cardiac and respiratory arrest at 1:35a.m. His death certificate gave the cause of death as gunshot wounds to the torso and extremities, as well as blunt trauma to the head and torso. ==Later developments==

Officials in Boston, Cambridge, at a state prison, and in over 120 other U.S. and Canadian locations refused to allow Tsarnaev's body to be buried in their jurisdictions. On May 9, Worcester police announced that Tsarnaev's body had been buried in an undisclosed location. It was later reported that Tsarnaev was buried in a small Muslim cemetery, Al-Barzakh Cemetery, in Doswell, Virginia. The burial was arranged by Martha Mullen of Richmond, Virginia, who said she was appalled by the protests at the funeral home, which she said "portrayed America at its worst" and wanted to find a way to end the impasse. She contacted Islamic Funeral Services of Virginia, which agreed to provide an unmarked plot in their cemetery. The funeral agency released a statement saying, "What Tsarnaev did is between him and God. We strongly disagree with his violent actions, but that does not release us from our obligation to return his body to the earth." Caroline County Sheriff Tony Lippa said the burial was legal. Locals, as well as the imam of the Virginia Islamic Centre, condemned the secretive burial. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev later admitted to his role in the bombing. He implicated his brother Tamerlan, asserting that he was following Tamerlan's lead. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also stated that he and his brother intended to detonate explosives in Times Square in New York City. On April 8, 2015, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted of all 30 criminal charges against him in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing. On May 15, 2015, he was sentenced to death. ==Family members==

Anzor Tsarnaev After moving to the United States, Anzor Tsarnaev worked as a backyard mechanic. Following the Boston Marathon bombing, a relative described Anzor as a "traditional Muslim" who objected to extremism. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is the mother of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. In photos of her as a younger woman, she wore western-style clothing. She came to the U.S. in 2002 and became a licensed aesthetician. Tsarnaeva discussed jihad during a 2011 phone call with Tamerlan Tsarnaev that was taped by a Russian government agency, and intelligence officials also discovered text messages in which she discussed how Tsarnaev was ready to die for Islam. or Katherine Tsarnaeva), was born on February 6, 1989, in Texas. They described fights in which Tsarnaev would "fly into rages and sometimes throw furniture or throw things". Tamerlan was known to cheat on Russell, and a friend of Russell's told her mother that the relationship was abusive. At Tsarnaev's insistence, Russell converted to Islam in 2008, adopted the hijab, and chose the name Karima. after female DNA was found on bomb fragments; neither her DNA nor her fingerprints matched those on the bombs. No charges were filed against Russell in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing. , Russell lived on "a quiet street in New Jersey" with her daughter. ==Biographical portrayals==