The Desperados, Part 5: Proof That Tamerlan Tsarnaev Was Killed in Custody  

 by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

This article contains startling news about the fate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev eight years ago. As many Bostonians saw on CNN television, in the wee hours of Friday, April 19, 2013, Tamerlan was arrested, naked, in Watertown and was walked to a police car. This occurred later than 1.05am.

Apparently, it should not have been shown on television, as it contradicts the official story. Tamerlan’s death, according to the incessantly repeated official story, resulted from his participation in a shoot-out with police on Laurel St, Watertown at 12.25am.

At the 2015 trial of Tamerlan’s brother Dzhokhar (“Jahar”), two Watertown police, Sgt John MacLellan and Sgt Reynolds, testified that they had engaged in the alleged fight with Tamerlan on Laurel St.  They both swore he was accidentally run over by his brother Jahar, who was fleeing the scene in a (carjacked) Mercedes SUV.

For a while, the CNN video of the arrest of a naked man, remained on YouTube but is now gone. With the passage of time, Bostonians, who seem to be willing to accept any nonsense the media presents about the “Marathon bombers,” accepted that Tamerlan died at Laurel St (or was rushed from there in an ambulance and died at Beth Israel Hospital).

Even persons who had seen the video were probably not inclined to think of it as solidly refuting the narrative.

I am the author of a 2019 book, The Soul of Boston and the Marathon Bombing (available on Amazon and a free download at GumshoeNews.com). I’ve been aware since the 2015 trial of Jahar that the game was not according to Hoyle.

Lecture and Sequelae

On January 23, 2018, in a lecture at Watertown Public Library, I concocted a Moot-court appeal for Jahar. Luckily for me, Sgt John MacLellan attended and contributed to the Open Mic session after the lecture. He reiterated his court testimony –very believably — that he saw Tamerlan die on Laurel St.

Well, a man can’t have two deaths, as far as I know, so what about the naked man being walked to a car, by FBI or cops? We could see on the video that he had no obvious wounds, and can’t possibly have been run over by an SUV an hour or so ago.  (Note: I saw the video after 2015, I only came into the story when the trial began in 2015.  Seeing big flaws in the courtroom procedure then got me intrigued.)

Very recently, when the US Supreme Court announced that it will listen to the appeal of Jahar Tsarnaev’s being sentenced to Death Row, I penned an article about that for GumshoeNews.com.  This led to my searching Google for a photo of Tamerlan.  Up came one I had never seen before.

It shows Tamerlan with a bare chest.  I then compared this to an old screenshot I had made of the CNN video, where he is being walked, naked, to the cop car at 1:10am or so. The two pictures are clearly of the same man.

In other words, Tamerlan did get arrested in good health. And now we have proof – the bare-chested picture, taken well before the Marathon bombing of April 15, 2013. Please compare:

My editor at Gumshoe News, Dee McLachlan, who is surely the most responsible media person in Australia, did not like using such a low-resolution screen shot (on the right). So I tried searching Yahoo.com in hopes of finding the original CNN video, in which Gabe Ramirez was the on-the-spot reporter. I asked for: “Watertown 2013 suspect arrested, marathon, Gabe ramirez, CNN.”

Yahoo search gave me results that yielded the jackpot:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1304/19/bn.04.html

I will quote lengthy excepts, below, from those CNN transcripts. No video came up, but the transcripts are even more valuable. My tentative conclusion is that Tamerlan, naked, went off in the cop car and in the subsequent 5 hours was killed in FBI custody. He was 26 years old.

A corollary to my thesis is that the guy whom Sgt John MacLellan saw die on Laurel St is another person, a different man. His sad end needs to be investigated.

Excerpts from CNN Transcript of April 19, 2013

These excerpts are unaltered but have been slightly abridged by me, with bolding added:

TAPPER: All right, Juliette Kayyem, national security — homeland security consultant for CNN.

If you were just tuning in, just to recap on what’s been going on this evening, obviously, this is a city, an area of the country that is in heightened state of alert because of local law enforcement on the lookout for two suspects.

Earlier this evening at roughly 5:15 or so pm Eastern time, … Boston police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Joint Terrorism Task Force came together and put out photographs, images of two suspects wanted in relation to the terrorist attacks on the Boston Marathon. They were two young men, one wearing a white hat, one wearing a black hat.

Just in the last few hours, the FBI has put out new photographs, new images of these individuals. Those are the photographs you’re looking at right now that were put out at roughly 5:15.

And this is a still newer photograph of the two of them together. So the law enforcement community seeking the help of the public, asking for help, if anybody can identify these individuals.
That is yet another new photograph put out this evening overnight by the FBI; that one, too. One of the newer photographs just put out in the wee small hours of the morning, people seeking help.

Now, perhaps completely unrelated to the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks, there was a shooting this evening after 10 o’clock Eastern time, Boston time, pm, of a police officer on the campus of MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, right outside Boston, just over the river.

There was also a carjacking in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And then since then there has been an arrest made, an individual in Watertown, just a few miles away. That is where Drew was reporting from.

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And I want to now go to Gabe Ramirez, who is the photojournalist who took images of the apprehension of one of these individuals. We believe that there is a second individual also being pursued. Gabe, can you hear me?
RAMIREZ: Yes, I can hear you.

TAPPER: Gabe Ramirez, thank you so much. For those people just turning in, because you saw so much of this with your own eyes, shot the images of the individual being arrested, if we could actually show the video. You don’t need to show me. Show the video that Gabe shot earlier of the individual being arrested — there he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER (voice-over): He’s been pixelated because he’s naked. He was asked to take off all his clothes.
Gabe, as we show this video, tell us what exactly you saw.  The officers told this man to take off his clothing? Please explain what happened before the video you shot was filmed.
RAMIREZ: Well, we were at the MIT campus, responding to this report of a shooting of a police officer. And while we were there, we saw the state police and — local and state police leave the scene very, very quickly.

As we decided to pursue — we decided to pursue the location they were going to. En route, we had heard that there had been some sort of activity involving gunplay and as we got into Watertown, I followed a couple of state police cars from a distance, but was able to see where they were going.
I drove down a small street in residential Watertown called Nichols Street. And at that point, at Nichols and Dexter, the police had just swarmed the area, both in plainclothes, in uniforms and in tactical gear from probably every municipality in this area.

And as I got out of the vehicle and ran towards the scene along with a handful of other print journalists, I — we could clearly hear them yelling orders to somebody. We could not see the vehicle they were yelling at, but they were pointing their weapons at somebody. They were yelling at them. At some point, I guess a commander took charge of the scene, was yelling orders at him.

As this is all unfolding, everybody was extremely tense; neighbors were peering out their windows, trying to see what was going on.

Then what happened was I heard an order being given for this man — the police commander, I assume, was ordering him to remove all of his clothes, to put his hands up, to remove all of his clothes and walk towards them. I assume that’s what he did because then maybe five minutes later, he was escorted by police fully naked to a squad car and put in the back of it.

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TAPPER: All right, Gabe. Stay there. Stay tuned.
We want to now go to Susan Candiotti, CNN’s own Susan Candiotti, who hopefully can shed some light on the activity.
Susan, you told us earlier this evening that the FBI was trying to determine whether or not there was any relation to the activities on the campus of MIT, the police officer shot there,

[Mary: Sean Collier was shot dead in his parked cruise car at MIT at 10.24pm]

… the FBI trying to determine if there is any relationship with those individuals and that activity with what happened earlier this week, just a couple blocks from where I’m standing.
What are you hearing, Susan? ….  Susan Candiotti, can you hear me?  OK. Susan Candiotti not there. Let’s go back to Gabe [Ramirez].

Gabe, there were reports earlier that a second individual had been apprehended. Can you shed some light on that? … you also said that a police officer told you to presume that that second individual was not apprehended. Explain exactly what happened there.

RAMIREZ: Right. It’s a little confusing, as you can imagine.
I’d say shortly after the first individual was apprehended, put away in his vehicle, the police came out — a police spokesperson came out and told us, were giving us instructions as to where we should be and where a possible press location was going to be — a press command center would be set up.

Then somebody asked if these were the individuals involved in the bombing on Monday. He would not answer that question directly.

Somebody asked … if these people had thrown explosives during this chase that ended in Watertown. He did say that they suspected that explosive devices were used against their police officers during this chase. …   As a result, they were being very cautious in their movements in the streets around the neighborhood.

Then shortly — then a little bit later, after — and I had mentioned earlier that the police had removed the original suspect from the vehicle. When the FBI arrived, the FBI appeared to photograph him and question him for five to 10 minutes. They put him back in the back of the vehicle.

[Mary:  Wow, never heard that before.  There must be a “Form 302” record of it. No wonder Judge O’Toole did not permit anyone at Jahar’s trial to discuss Tamerlan.] Then another individual was brought out of nowhere, it seems.   it was very dark. I couldn’t exactly see what he looked like. It was hard to see through the viewfinder even. But we weren’t — nobody there was sure what the relation to this first suspect was of this second individual.

[Mary: This is probably the guy I called “Billy,” at my Watertown Open Mic – he is a red herring at best.]
They took him away and there was not much fanfare around this second individual. [Mary: Billy]

I mentioned to Drew earlier that several neighbors in the area had come out and were causing a problem for the local police and they were arrested by the local police. And these were just people in the neighborhood. So that may have been one of those people. However, they walked him towards the vehicle where the first suspect was being detained. [Mary: What!] So it’s just very curious. Once he was gone, then the state police spokesperson came out again, did not want to be on camera. He… said that they believe the second suspect involved in the chase tonight that ended in Watertown was still at large and that people in the neighborhood should stay in their homes because he’s considered armed and dangerous….

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TAPPER: OK. Is Susan Candiotti with us? Susan, can you hear me? CANDIOTTI: Yes, I do.

TAPPER: Susan Candiotti, great.  What are you hearing from your sources? The FBI has said that they’re trying to establish whether or not there’s a relationship between the Boston Marathon terrorist attack and, of course, the criminal activities, the cop shooting, the police officer killed this evening in Cambridge and the individual detained, arrested in Watertown, Massachusetts.

CANDIOTTI…, the FBI office here…  And they, of course, are leading this investigation. Quite clearly, in a case of such huge importance, they want to make sure they get it right….
TAPPER: All right. Susan, thank you so much. … There was an individual arrested, this followed the shooting of a police officer on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT in Cambridge across the river.
I am standing here with Juliette Kayyem who is a columnist with “The Boston Globe” and also a homeland security analyst for CNN.   Earlier this evening, at roughly 5:00 pm or so, the FBI and law enforcement released images of individuals, two individuals, two young men —

TAPPER (voice-over):  … So the FBI is still seeking the help of the public [MARY: FBI SAID THEY COULD NOT RECOGNZE THE MEN. WHAT A JOKE TAMERLAN HAD BEEN AN FBI NFORMER FOR YEARS, AS THE FBI LATER ADMTTED.]

with even more images that have come across their desk, even more images perhaps shared by the public, perhaps shared from surveillance cameras. We’re also going to take a look at — we’re also going to take a look at a picture shared by — on Facebook which “The New York Times” ascertained was an authentic picture of one of the individuals…. a remarkably good photograph of the face of the young man with the white hat was taken — this is after the bomb took off.

The Massachusetts State Police saying that explosives were there, being used by the individuals they were pursuing in Watertown. We do not know if there is any relationship whatsoever between the criminal activity this evening and the terrorist attacks on Monday at the Boston Marathon.
Juliette, you were telling us that the reason Gabe Ramirez, one of our photojournalists, said that he saw the individual who had been put in the car, he had been made to take off all his clothes, that was done because… ?

KAYYEM: Because if there’s explosives that people have been reporting and the state police have been confirming that, the person might actually be carrying something or wearing something that could detonate and hurt the police officers approaching him.

TAPPER: [shows map] And this is where the police officer was killed this evening?

KAYYEM: Right. And when I left you a couple hours ago, I got into a car and there were about 30 police cars that passed me on the Massachusetts Turnpike. When they got closer to Cambridge, they turned towards Watertown. So clearly, this was unfolding at about 10:30. [Mary: Fascinating! I had thought the Dun Meng carjacking did not start till around 11pm.]
… and regardless of what happened on Monday [Marathon Day], the activity that’s being described in Watertown tonight, explosives, gun shootouts, fleeing, carjacking — is very unusual for this city, very unusual for Watertown.

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TAPPER: All right. I want to bring in Drew Griffin, who has been on the ground, on the scene in Watertown all evening for us and gave up his earpiece and microphone to Gabe Ramirez for a second….

GRIFFIN: I just want to clarify a couple of things. Gabe Ramirez, the photojournalist…, I had him walk back to our satellite truck and take a good look at the video he shot.
We now believe that the naked person, the person who was taken into custody naked, which we showed earlier and the second quote-unquote “suspect,” whom Gabe had described being arrested but we have not shown. [Mary: I think that is Billy] We believe that’s the same person.
So one suspect. They put his clothes back on, brought him out, put him up against the wall and took his photograph. That, I can tell you, was done, because I saw it myself from the video.

[Mary: I believe it was Billy who had his photo taken against the wall. Sgt MacLellan described the wall photo at my 2018 lecture.]

— end of my excepts from the CNN transcript.

Commentary

It would help to get time stamps on those bits.  If I were Jahar’s attorney, I would subpoena them. And I’d ask CNN “On what date did you delete the Gabe Ramirez video from YouTube?” “And why?”

It is important to understand that if Tamerlan was not in the shootout at Laurel St, it’s improbable that his kid brother Jahar was there. Note: Jahar’s alleged participation in that shootout is one of the counts on which he was convicted at the 2015 District Court trial. Jahar then had an appeal but his “Defenders” did not bring up any of the material that is laid out in my book The Soul of Boston and the Marathon Bombing.

In my view, there are two murders to be accounted for, and which the Watertown police should attend to immediately: the death of Tamerlan in custody of the FBI, and the death of an unidentified young man at the scene of the Watertown shootout on Laurel St. I hereby offer my services as an advisor to Sgt John MacLellan, gratis.

An interesting aside is that the “boat-wall confession” – which the super-educated citizenry of Boson seems to have accepted without a whimper – includes a phrase by Jahar: “I’m jealous of my brother who has received the reward of jannutul Firdaus (inshallah) before me…. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah …” etc.

Oh, for Pete’s sake, a boy who drove off in an SUV after running over his bro, could not have then found out that the bro had died.

I say the ruse is up, do you agree?

Going by past experience, including the murder of Tamerlan, I would expect the US government to speed up the execution of Jahar, in order that he never get to say what really happened.

Will this new exculpatory information put a clamp on that speeding up?

It’s up to you, Boston, Mass.

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UPDATE:  I have now learned that Ken Adachi’s website “Educate Yourself” made many similar points back in May 2013!  See here. He conjectured that there was no Laurel St shootout.  I, too, had assumed that was the case, until I got the downlow from Sgt MacLellan.