Request for an Inquest into the Death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev

by Mary W Maxwell, PhD, LLB

Open Letter to Mindy Hull, MD, Medical Examiner for Massachusetts, 720 Albany St, Boston, MA 02218

Dear Dr Hull,

Greetings.

When you were appointed Chief Medical Examiner five months ago (October 24, 2017), you said

“The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is made up of a team of tireless and dedicated individuals who are responsible for investigating, documenting, and understanding the unexplained, unattended, or mysterious deaths that occur across the Commonwealth. Whether it is providing families with closure, evidence to the courts, or a statistical overview of the well-being of our communities…  I am honored to be chosen to lead this office and I approach this role with a deep sense of responsibility….”

Dr Hull, I write today to ask you to conduct an inquest into the unsolved mystery of the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was last seen publicly on April 19, 2013, in Watertown. The law calls for his death to be examined by you.

In Massachusetts General Law, Part I, Title IV, Chapter 38, we find:

Section 3. It shall be the duty of any person having knowledge of a death which occurs under the circumstances enumerated in this paragraph immediately to notify the office of the chief medical examiner, or the medical examiner designated to the location where the death has occurred, of the known facts concerning the time, place, manner, circumstances and cause of such death:

[in the following categories…]

Let me now select only the clauses that may apply to the case of Tsarnaev:

(1) death where criminal violence appears to have taken place, regardless of the time interval between the incident and death, and regardless of whether such violence appears to have been the immediate cause of death, or a contributory factor thereto;

(4) death under suspicious or unusual circumstances;

(7) death in custody, in any jail or correctional facility…

(12) sudden death when the decedent was in apparent good health;

(13) death in any public or private conveyance;

(17) death in an emergency treatment facility, medical walk-in center…

Tamerlan was seen and heard – and there is a good-quality video of this – on Mt Auburn St, Watertown at 1:05am, on April 19, 2013.  That was the Friday morning after the Monday when the Boston Marathon took place. He is lying face down on the sidewalk. A cop in a yellow fluorescent jacket is standing over him – it looks as though Tamerlan is being frisked. Tamerlan yells “Podstava.” I am told that this is the Russian phrase for “It’s a set-up”. Or “I’m a patsy.”

I point out that this timing – 1:05am — proves that the police story that Tamerlan was captured at Laurel St at 12:35am (after a shootout with police) cannot be true. The Laurel St story has Tamerlan very wounded, and handcuffed.  He could not then be seen a half-hour later as a free man, in an apparently unwounded condition.

A further complication is that a naked man, whom the Tsarnaev family identifies as Tamerlan, was shown on CNN being put into a cop car. The timing of the broadcast of the CNN report is after 1:05 am, possibly around 2am. CNN reporter Gabe Ramirez could verify it for you.

As a result of the above, I deduce that Tamerlan was arrested there, while lying face down, at Mt Auburn St, that he was then stripped of his clothes, and taken away in a cop car. The authorities announced the death of Tamerlan sometime before 6am.

Mandated Categories

I shall now explain why I think the Section 3 categories – some or all of them – may fit the case.

Among your mandates to investigate, I name #7 as perhaps the main one: death in custody. Of course I don’t know if he died in that cop car, but if he did then #13 would be relevant: death in a conveyance.

I reckon #12 is also pertinent: sudden death when the decedent was in apparent good health. And if he died in hospital, then #17 comes into play: death in an emergency treatment facility (unless that excludes general hospitals such as the Beth Israel Deaconness.).

As for #4: death under suspicious or unusual circumstances, my suspicion is aroused at the very least by the fact that there was no Inquest done, as the law demands. That is, Tamerlan’s death was officially described as having occurred partly as a result of police (self-defense) gunshot and partly as a result of being run over by a car. Wouldn’t this call for an inquest?

Death Certificate

On April 25, 2013, your predecessor as Medical Examiner, Henry M Nields, MD, PhD, signed the death certificate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. (I did not know it was customary for anyone other than the attending physician to sign.) He listed the cause of death as GUNSHOT WOUNDS OF TORSO AND EXTREMITIES AND BLUNT TRAUMA TO HEAD AND TORSO.

In the section marked  “Describe how injury occurred,” Nields wrote: SHOT BY POLICE AND THEN RUN OVER AND DRAGGED BY MOTOR VEHICLE.

Of course the Medical Examiner can’t be the original provider of that information – he only saw the body after the dragging, not while it was happening.  But I personally think he should have realized from the condition of the body that “shot, run over, and dragged” was unlikely to be how the death – of the real Tamerlan — really occurred.

Also the place of death is given as Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center. When did he arrive there? At what moment did he – supposedly – die in hospital? The death certificate says “time pronounced” dead as 1:35am. Thus he allegedly survived his wounds for an hour after the alleged Laurel St shootout.

Was It the Wrong Man?

The fact that Tamerlan’s uncle Ruslan Tsarni is listed as the  “designee” for disposition of the body makes me think that the man about whom the death certificate was written was in fact Tamerlan – a close relative would notice if the corpse was of a stranger.

Yet, having read the police report of the shootout at Laurel St – which formed the testimony on March 16, 2015 at the federal criminal trial of Dzhokhar (Jahar) Tsarnaev — it does seem that “a mistaken set of brothers” was involved in the shootout.

To say again, I assess the video of Tamerlan on the sidewalk at Mt Auburn St, as valid, and so does his family. I can’t see anything wrong with it. It is popularly known as “the Podstava video.”

If the authorities want to argue against the validity of the Podstava video  they should indeed argue against it, but they ignore it. So please assume – just for the moment — that Tamerlan did get arrested at 1:05am on Mt Auburn St.

Who, then, was the man reportedly arrested, wounded, on Laurel St? And what happened to him?  That is not a matter I wish to take up in this letter, but it does look like a mysterious death, fitting into Category 1: death where criminal violence appears to have taken place. (There was not only the use of a gun but of pipe bombs at that location – crimes for which the brother, Dzhokhar, was convicted and is on Death Row.)

Officer Reynolds’ Testimony at the Trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

I shall now quote, abridged, the lengthy testimony of Watertown policeman, Officer Joseph Reynolds, in Direct Examination by Mr Steven D Mellin for the Prosecution:

Q. What did you do?
 A. At that point my only defense was my cruiser. I didn’t want to exit. I didn’t think it was a good vantage point for me. So what I did was I ducked down behind my dashboard, I threw the cruiser into reverse, and I backed up about 30 yards. Q. After you backed up, did you get out of your car?
A. Yes. Before doing so I notified dispatch that we had shots fired. “Shots fired.”
Q. At that point in time, had anybody else come on the scene? A. I was still alone at that time, yes.
Q. What did you do?
A. I exited my driver’s side door and I used that as cover. And I was exchanging gunfire with Tamerlan, I believe. 
Q. You said “Tamerlan, I believe.” What do you mean by that? A. Well, Tamerlan was still from cover. So it was Tamerlan that was shooting at me at that time.

Q. Where was he located in relation? 
A. At that time he was still beside
his driver’s side door as cover. All
flashes.
… Q. Okay. What did you do?
A. At that point Sergeant MacLellan had left the vehicle in neutral — or drive, and it continued to drive down Laurel Street towards the suspects. Q. With the car rolling down towards the suspects, what happened?
A. I came out from cover behind my driver’s side door…. [what kind] of car does he have? 
SUV, a Ford Expedition.
 … using the rear of his cruiser, and I was walking down the street continuing to fire at the two suspects.
 Q. What was Sergeant MacLellan doing?
 A. At that time — I had not realized at that time that he had exited his cruiser and he had ran into the side yards of one of the residences … on Laurel Street. Q. As you’re using his car now as cover, what do you see in front of you? A. I could see muzzle flashes at that point.
 Q. Where were the muzzle flashes?
A. Coming from behind the black Mercedes…. Q. At that point in time, were you able to tell who was shooting? 
A. No.
 Q. What do you actually see? You see muzzle flashes. What else?
 A. I could see muzzle flashes. And at that time I saw Sergeant MacLellan run into the side yard, so I followed him over there to communicate what he wanted.
 Q. When you followed him to the side yard, describe what that side yard looked like. … A. It’s a very narrow area. There’s a small tree that we were using for cover. There’s bushes, a white plastic fence. Q. So are the two of you taking cover behind one tree?
 A. Yes.

Q. What happened as you were doing that?
 A. We continued the gun fight with the two suspects.
 Q. Again, can you describe for us exactly what you see happening at that point in time?
 A. I could see two men. I could not distinguish who was who.

I could see muzzle flashes. As well, I saw a lighter being lit and a wick being — what looked like a wick burning.
Q. And when you saw that wick burning, did you see something happen with that item?
A. I saw — I didn’t see who threw it, but it was thrown towards myself and Sergeant MacLellan.

Q. What happened to that item?
A. It landed in the middle of Laurel Street and exploded.
 Q. When it exploded, what did you do?
 A. At that point I ran back into — to get more cover behind the houses. Q. At the time that you are seeing these muzzle flashes and this gunfire, are both of the suspects behind that black SUV? A. Yes, sir.
 Q. But you can’t tell who is shooting? 
A. No. No.

Q. And you don’t know who threw that first pipe bomb?  A. I do not.
 Q. And then what happened when you went around to your vehicle? ….
 A. Again, it was a long gun battle, approximately eight to nine minutes. They had thrown, I believe, three more — four more bombs — or three more pipe-bomb types. I could see those being lit and being thrown at us as well as taking gunfire.

Q. Did all of those explode? 
A. No.
 Q. Do you recall how many exploded?
A. I believe two exploded.
 Q. Two more?
 A. Two more were exploded, yes.
 Q. Now, when you said they were being thrown at you, could you tell who was throwing them? 
A. No, sir. I could not. 
Q. What happened after that?
A. Then as we were still in their yard taking gunfire, of course, I could see — I didn’t see who threw it. I saw it coming through the air, but I saw a larger-type bomb being thrown at us. 
Q. When you say you saw a larger-type bomb, what — can you describe what you saw?

Q. It was a cylinder, almost like a big cooking pot, a big pan.
 Q. What exactly did you see? Did you see it in the air? Did you see it being thrown? What did you see? 
A. I could not see it being thrown. I saw it coming through the air at that time.
 Q. At that point in time, where were the two suspects?
 A. They were still behind the front of the Mercedes.

…Q. What did you do after that? They were still behind the black Mercedes.
Q. During these eight or nine minutes that you were engaged in this earlier gunfire…, what did you see the suspects doing?
A. I could see them ducking down underneath — behind the Mercedes. That’s about all I could see. They were coming in and out of cover.
 Q. Could you estimate about how many rounds were fired in the direction of either you or Sergeant MacLellan?
 A. For eight minutes it felt like it was hundreds. …

The Capture of “Tamerlan”

Q. As Sergeant Pugliese approached on the side and you were shooting from straight-on, what happened?

A. At that point Tamerlan had come up from cover, and I believe he was in the driveway of one of the residences there. And he was exchanging gunfire with Sergeant Pugliese, at which point I came out from cover, I started walking down the street. I had a good visual on him, so I got down on one knee and I started — attempting to strike the suspect.
Q. By shooting him?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. Why did you abandon your more-secure position?
A. I believe I had a good shot on him that I could end the threat.

Q. Okay. Do you know what the other suspect was doing at that point in time?
A. I could not see.
Q. You came out, Sergeant Pugliese is engaging him in gunfire, and you’re shooting at Tamerlan Tsarnaev? 
A. Correct.
… Tamerlan started running towards this officer, towards me.
 Q. Towards you?
 A. Yes.
 Q. Okay. As he started to run towards you, what did you do?  A. At that point I saw Sergeant Pugliese chasing him, so I holstered, I started running down the street, and that’s when Sergeant Pugliese tackled him from behind.

Q. When the defendant’s brother started running at you, how far was he from you?
 A. Probably about 30 yards.
 Q. At the time that he was tackled, how far were the two of you apart? A. From when he was tackled, about ten yards.
 Q. When he was tackled by Sergeant Pugliese, what did you do? A. Sergeant MacLellan had come from where he was located, and we all, the three of us, tried to subdue Tsarnaev — or Tamerlan. Sorry.

Q. When you say you tried to subdue him, how did you try to do that?
 A. He was wrestling with us and we were trying to gain control of him so we could get handcuffs on him. 
Q. Were you able to do that?
A. No, not at that time.
 Q. Why not?
A. He was a big kid. He was wrestling with us. We just weren’t able to control him at that time.
Q. At some point did you hear a car rev up?
A. Yes, sir.
 Q. What happened?

Q. At that point we were wrestling with Tamerlan, and all of a sudden I could hear an engine revving and, you know, come closer to us. I screamed to the guys, I said, “Get off. Get off. He’s coming back towards us.”
 Q. When you said “he’s coming back towards us,” what was coming back towards you?
A. The black Mercedes was aiming right at us.
… Q. What did you do?
A. I pulled my gun out and I attempted to shoot the operator of the vehicle.
Q. Were you successful?
A. I don’t know if I hit him but I know I hit the windshield. Q. Did the car stop?
A. No.

Q. What happened?
 A. The next thing that happened was myself, Sergeant MacLellan and Sergeant Pugliese, we all kind of dispersed, and Sergeant Pugliese attempted to pull Tamerlan off the road, or off — out of the way of the vehicle. 
Q. Was he successful in doing that?
A. Negative.
Q. What happened? 
A. He was ran over by the Mercedes. I remember being — I was very close, maybe seven to ten yards away. I saw Tamerlan get run over, get stuck in the rear wheel well. He then kept going and ran over his brother.
 Q. Do you know who was operating the Mercedes at that point? A. It was Dzhokhar.
 Q. And for the record, do you see him in court today?
A. Yes.
 Q. Can you identify him? 
A. Him (indicating).

MR MELLIN: Your Honor, I would ask that the record reflect identification of the defendant.

THE COURT: All right. BY MR. MELLIN:

Punishment for Silence

As I noted earlier, Chapter 38 Section 3, states the Massachusetts law on inquests. It even makes it an offense to fail to report certain cases to the Medical Examiner. I quote:

A physician, police officer, hospital administrator, licensed nurse, …or licensed funeral director, within the commonwealth, who, having knowledge of such an unreported death, fails to notify the office of the chief medical examiner of such death shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars. Such failure shall also be reported to the appropriate board of registration, where applicable.

Dr Hull, I am an outsider. I had no part to play in the events of April, 2013 and I am not a relative of the deceased. I am what we call in Australia, a stickybeaker: I nose around. Yet as a US citizen I am entitled to know if the law is being followed.

The death of Tamerlan was not adjudicated by any judge or jury. It was handled in a courtroom only as incidental to the charges laid against the brother, Dzhokhar. As far as I can tell, the police report of a Laurel St shootout has gone unexamined. Yet it is highly problematical – and may well involve the death of an as-yet-unidentified person.

What Can Be Done

I have met the sergeant who was in charge of the area that night, John MacLellan. He strikes me as honest. Would you please question him as to the basis for his knowledge that the man he and Officer Reynolds and Sgt Pugliese engaged with on Laurel St, is Tamerlan?

Please do that and all other things that you can do in fulfilment of your obligations. One of the responsibilities you mentioned is to give closure to families.  There are members of the Tsarnaev family who do not have closure about this. Quite possibly they consider it dangerous to write to you. I do not consider it the least bit dangerous. The law protects me and you very clearly in this matter.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Maxwell (author of Marathon Bombing: Indicting the Players)