Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year old man suspected of executing the Boston Marathon bombings on Wednesday, was finally captured by the police after a gunfight. Meanwhile, Sunil Tripathi, who was wrongfully identified as the bombing suspect, is still missing.
Tsarnaev is the younger brother of the other bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was shot dead by the police during a manhunt on Thursday night. The two brothers are ethnic Chechens. The photos and videos of the two bombing suspects were released on Thursday by the FBI, which appealed to the public to come forward and help in identifying them.
The 19-year-old bombing suspect is currently being treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and it is not known what charges will be brought against him. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has lifted the "stay-in-place" order for Boston in an effort to restore normalcy in the city.
The 117th Boston Marathon was rocked by two bomb explosions on Monday that left 3 dead, including a Boston University graduate student from China, and nearly 190 people injured. The bombs were made in pressure cookers and packed with ball bearings and nails.
The FBI said the two brothers did not have criminal record or suspected as possible militants prior to the bombings. However, the federal agency had interviewed Tamerlan pursuant to the request of a foreign government. "It (the request) was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups," a statement released by the FBI stated. The two brothers had emigrated to the U.S. about a decade back.
Ruslan Tsarni, who claims to be an uncle of the suspects, said they were a shame on "our family" and "the entire Chechen ethnicity."
The suspects' parents, however, claim their sons were "clearly framed" and it was "a setup" to malign their names.
Those who knew Dzhokhar, said he was a cheery, mild-mannered, "all-American kid." However, Tamerlan could have influenced his younger brother with fundamental and radical ideologies.
Tamerlan, who was a part-time accounting student at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, was quoted as saying in a 2010 profile in "The Comment" magazine, published by Boston University's School of Communications, that he didn't have "a single American friend" and he "don't understand them."
According to Maret Tsarnaeva, the suspects' aunt who lives in Toronto, Tamerlan had become very religious in recent years and "about three years ago he began praying five times a day."
Meanwhile, a case of mistaken identity have made the life of a Sunil Tripathi, a nightmare. Tripathi, a Brown University student, was mistakenly identified as one of the bombing suspects after the FBI had made the surveillance photos and videos of the Boston bombing suspects, public.
Tripathi, who's been missing since March 16, was mistakenly identified as the bombing suspect on Twitter and Reddit and many speculated that he had gone missing because he was planning the bombing. The most surprising thing was that at no point of time , the police or the FBI had even once mentioned the name Tripathi as a bombing suspect.
Later, when it became clear that the Chechen brothers were the bombing suspects, Reddit had posted an apology. "The downside of instant journalism is that we sometimes get things wrong. And sometimes media outlets can take this false information and run with it. but the harm was already done," the post said.
"The harm done to my family is profound and more profound than an apology later," Tripathi's sister Sangeeta told India Ink.
Margaret Klawunn, the vice president for campus life and student services, said, "Reports that he was a possible suspect in the Boston Marathon investigation were untrue and there is no connection between him and the events in Boston. Our thoughts are with the Tripathi family who have had to endure additional pain due to unfounded and irresponsible Internet rumors."
The search for Tripathi is still going on. Klawunn said. Tripathi disappeared on March 16 from his Providence apartment leaving his wallet and phone behind. He hasn't been heard from since.
