This unfortunate and tragic incident triggered a multi-police investigation, and a manhunt of grand proportion in modern day history. As I write this blog the police in Watertown, Massachusetts, have moved in on a suspect hiding on a boat and have stated there is a “suspect in custody”. An ambulance is on the scene, this time for the suspect. This is the 19 year old suspect law enforcement have been tracking for over 20 hours since Thursday night, April 18, 2013, after shooting and killing his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The brothers were reported throwing explosives devices at police during the brothers’ getaway attempt, which also involved over 200 rounds of ammunition. It seems that there is a confirmation that the person is in fact the 19 year old bombing suspect, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev.
Mayor Menino tweeted ‘we got him”. There was an alleged gun battle between the suspect and the police. A homeowner noticed a tear in his boat’s tarp in his driveway, and blood on the boat. He then called the police. At the time of the writing of the article the report is the suspect is injured and alive. It would seem that the suspect was wounded in last night’s gun battle with the police, and was hiding in the boat since last night. Reports state he has lost a good amount of blood. No report if he suffered additional injuries from the instant gun battle with the police. No doubt this will be a sensational prosecution on United States grounds. A tweet from Boston Police Department stated ‘Captured’. Unfortunately an MIT police officer Sean Collier, 26 years old, was killed in the unfolding of the events last night. Another officer was gravely wounded in the gun battle with the Tsarnaev brothers, and is in critical, but stable condition.
Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is considered innocent until proven guilty. That is the foundation of our Criminal Justice System. In the United States an accused person is considered innocent until proven guilty. That is the PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE under our Criminal Justice System. Anyone accused of a crime is entitled to a CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER to represent her or him against the charges she or he will be facing. I am sure the federal prosecutors were preparing the formal charges in anticipation of the bombing suspect’s capture. It will be the Government’s burden to prove Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as to each and every charge for which he will be indicted. He will be judged by a jury of his peers for the vast amount of formal criminal charges that will be lodged against him. There is no doubt in my mind that this case will be held in the federal courts, and not the state courts, due to the type of criminal charges that will be brought against Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev. The hunt may be over for the bombing suspect, but the prosecution of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev has just begun. This is only the opinion of a QUEENS CRIMINAL ATTORNEY Luke Scardigno with offices in Kew Gardens, Queens NY.
