VKontakt
Azamat Tazhayakov (left), Dias Kadyrbayev, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (right) in a photo taken in Times Square. The picture, which appeared on Tsarnaev’s page on VKontakt, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, is believed to be from November 2012.
By Pete Williams, Richard Esposito, Michael Isikoff and Tracy Connor, NBC News
Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were accused Wednesday of removing evidence from his dorm room as new details about the case emerged in court papers.
Criminal complaints against the trio revealed that Tsarnaev cut his long hair after the April 15 attack but before the FBI released his photo and that he allegedly told friends a month earlier that he knew “how to make a bomb.”
The court papers also suggest that the 19-year-old suspect was practically blasé when one of the friends texted to say he looked like the man in the FBI photos of the bomb suspect.
Among his replies: ‘lol,” according to the complaints.
Attorneys for the three suspects that were arrested for allegedly assisting in the Boston Marathon bombing maintain their clients’ innocence and say that they were shocked by the attack.
The complaints were filed against Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, who were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice, and Robel Phillipos, who was charged with making false statements.
The three friends, who are all 19-years-old, allegedly went to Tsarnaev’s dorm room after the FBI photos came out April 18 and left with a backpack that contained fireworks tubes that had been emptied of their explosive powder, according to the documents.
The backpack was later tossed in the garbage, though the suspects’ gave conflicting statement about whether that happened before or after Tsarnaev had been publicly named as the bombing suspect following a night of bloody mayhem.
As the allegations against them were unveiled, Tsarnaev’s three friends appeared in Boston Federal Court Wednesday afternoon. None of the charges suggested they had prior knowledge of the dual bombings that killed three and wounded more than 200 near the finish line of the race.
FBI
This May 1, 2013 FBI handout image released in a criminal complaint, shows fireworks tubes found in a backpack that was disposed of by friends of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev — who are from Kazakhstan and were detained more than a week ago on immigration charges — did not seek bail and were ordered held until a May 14 hearing.
Phillipos is being held until a detention hearing Monday. As he was read his rights, Federal Judge Marianne Bowler admonished him, saying, “I suggest you pay attention to me rather than looking down.”
Outside the courthouse, Harlan Protass, a lawyer for Tazhayakov, said his client “has cooperated fully with the authorities and looks forward to the truth coming out in this case.”
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Tsarnaev friends had money and ‘Terrorista #1′ license plate, classmate says
Vkontakt
From left: Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A photograph from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s page on VKontakt, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, appears to show him in Times Square. It is believed to be from November 2012. New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said authorities knew of two trips by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to New York in 2012 but said he did not know whether those visits were related to any plot against Times Square.
By Miranda Leitsinger, Tom Winter and Erin McClam, NBC News
Two of the three people newly arrested in the Boston Marathon investigation are Kazakh friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and one drove a BMW with a novelty license plate that said “Terrorista #1,” according to people who knew them.
The two were pictured in a 2012 photo with Tsarnaev in Times Square that was posted to VKontakt, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Authorities say Tsarnaev and his brother, suspected in the marathon attack, discussed driving to New York and setting off more of their explosives there.
The Kazakh men, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, were charged Wednesday with conspiring to destroy or hide a laptop belonging to Tsarnaev and a backpack of his containing fireworks.
Another man, Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, Mass., was charged with lying to investigators. All three appeared in federal court in Boston Wednesday afternoon.
Both Kazakh men are 19 and were in the United States on student visas, the Justice Department said.
Stephen Troio, who said he lived on the same dorm floor as the two men during his freshman year in 2011, said that they showed “lack of emotion” and “lack of personality” and that nothing stood out about them but the BMW.
“They did have a lot of money,” Troio told NBC News. “He wrecked like three Beamers and then bought another one.”
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A photo attached to the criminal complaint shows fireworks recovered from a backpack.
Criminal complaints against three college friends of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contain new details about the case:
- A month before the April 15 attack on the Boston Marathon, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told college friends Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev over a meal that he “knew how to make a bomb,” Tazhayakov said.
- When Kadyrbaev texted Tsarnaev on April 18 to say that he looked like one of the suspects in video just released by the FBI, the 19-year-old responded with messages including: “lol,” “you better not text me” and “come to my room and take whatever you want.”
- Among the items Tazhayakov, Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos say they found in Tsarnaev’s dorm room was Vaseline, which Kadyrbayev said he believed was used to “make bombs.”
- At a New Bedford, Mass., landfill, the FBI recovered the backpack containing the fireworks, the Vaseline and an assignment sheet from a University of Massachusetts class Tsarnaev was taking.
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A Texas actress, Shannon Rogers Richardson, also known as Shannon Rogers Guess, has been arrested in connection with allegedly ricin-tainted letters that were mailed last month to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a federal law enforcement source said on Friday, June 7.
Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is seen with friends in Times Square in this undated photo, posted to Russian social media site VKontakte./ Rex USA
