“American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing” tells the horrifying tale of an unprecedented incident in the history of United States law enforcement. The incident was one of its kind, mostly because no terrorist organization took responsibility for it, and it was hard to believe that two young boys, who did not have a very strong “Mens rea,” had acted on their own accord and brought down the entire system on its knees and wreaked havoc on the lives of innocent people. When you look back at the incident and go through all the evidence, you realize how delusional the brothers had become and how their insanity led to the deaths of so many innocent people. You realize how frail and egotistical the human mind can get and how it tries to validate its own wrongdoing by attaching a larger-than-life cause to it.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev never felt that Muslims were being wronged until his dream of winning the Olympic gold was shattered. The moment he realized that he couldn’t be a part of the US Olympic team, he suddenly had problems with the state policies and everything else that the government was doing. It was a convenient explanation that he had given himself, but in reality, he was as selfish as any human could be. He was just doing it because he was angry, and obviously, there would have been people who infested that feeling and tried to use it as a tool to fulfill their own agendas. I personally believe that had Tamerlan Tsarnaev been given a chance to represent the United States of America at the Olympics, he would have never become the Boston Marathon Bomber. These so-called saviors of religion have the uniform trait of interpreting the meaning of Jihad in the most absurd and bizarre manner, which is aimed to suit their own actions and desires. After watching the Boston Marathon Bomber, we can assume that had the elder brother not taken that path, then Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also would have had a good life, and they both would have been able to realize the American dream for which their father had come to the country in the first place.
How Was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Captured?
After the FBI found information about Tamerlan, they got to know that the second suspect who was in that hijacked Mercedes with him was his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A national manhunt on an unprecedented scale was launched, and it was decided that a grid search of the entire city of Watertown would be conducted. At this point, the police didn’t know if the Boston marathon bombings were the doing of these two brothers alone or if there was a terrorist cell that was operating and giving them commands. Commissioner Ed Davis and Rick DesLauriers from the FBI knew that every minute was precious, and they couldn’t afford to lose out on the second suspect because the authorities were still skeptical about a potential terrorist cell getting activated. They gave orders to shelter in place, and the entire city was put on hold. People were scared, and they didn’t know when it would be all over. They were given orders to not let anyone in unless and until they were sure that it was a police officer knocking at their doors. The city was flooded with almost 2500 police officers, and terror could be felt just by looking at the faces of the residents who were trapped in their houses.
The police caught Tamerlan’s wife, Katherine Russell, and they hoped that through her, they could get some crucial information that would help them find Dzhokhar. But Katherine didn’t cooperate in the investigation, and additionally, the police didn’t find any incriminating evidence against her so that they could keep her in their custody. Katherine was released, and once again, the authorities didn’t have any probable leads that could help them catch the younger brother. The FBI got word that Dzhokhar had an apartment in Umass-Dartmouth, so a SWAT team, a hostage rescue team, and a contingent of local police were immediately dispatched to the area to find and capture him. The FBI officials were very sure that this time they would find the Boston Bomber and put an end to the manhunt that was becoming frustrating for them. But once again, they weren’t able to find anybody there, and they found themselves running out of options and didn’t know what to do next or how to reassure the people about their safety when a criminal was on the loose.
The mayor had to lift the “shelter in place” eventually, as he got direct orders from the sitting president, Barack Obama, to do so. The FBI officials had started entertaining the possibility that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might have escaped the city limits and slipped from their hands when something unexpected happened. They got a call from a man living on 67 Franklin Street at the Waterfront, who told them that there was a ship standing in his yard, and he suspected that the Boston Marathon Bomber was hiding inside it. Billy Evans, who was from the Boston police, thought that it would be best if a tactical team came and took matters into their own hands and resolved the issue peacefully, but before that could happen, the local cops arrived at the scene and started firing at the boat. Billy Evans had to literally shout at the top of his lungs to make them stop. The HRT arrived at the scene, and after using smoke and flash-bang grenades, they were finally able to catch Dzhokhar Tsarnaev alive.
Why Did Dzhokhar Bomb Boston? Where Is He Now?
Dzhokar’s teachers and friends couldn’t believe that he was behind the Boston Marathon bombings, as he didn’t fit the stereotype. When Dzhokhar was in school, he didn’t show any interest in political matters, and he was clearly not a fanatic. He went to pray like any normal person would, and being a Muslim was not something that was a prominent part of his identity. But something happened down the line that impacted him so much that it radicalized his entire beliefs and ideology. The FBI found Anwar Al-Awlaki’s “Inspire” magazine among many other such publications of terrorist organizations. Dzhokhar had also written a Jihadi manifesto in the boat he was hiding in, and that is why the law enforcement authorities wanted to make sure if there was any involvement of any third party. The FBI didn’t find any proof of it and came to the conclusion that the Tsarnaev brothers had acted on their own accord.
Dzhokhar’s parents had separated just before he moved to college, and that probably had some role to play in the scheme of things. Tamerlan Tsarnaev became a father figure to his younger brother, and his words and actions had a great impact on him. That was the same time when Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been disallowed to take part in the Olympics trials, and it added fuel to the fire. It could be said that his brother’s newfound ideologies would have deeply influenced him, and somewhere he would have also felt coerced and wouldn’t have been able to say no to him. Dzhokhar unnecessarily victimized himself, and he was delusional enough to believe that he was fighting for a greater cause.
A charismatic and popular boy who was loved by all suddenly started developing feelings of frustration and discontent, and he wanted to find a cause big enough to put all the blame on. Dzhokhar was given a death sentence, but he ended up appealing against the order, and the courts gave a verdict in his favor in the year 2020 and reduced his punishment to life imprisonment. There was a lot of hue and cry when that ruling of the court came, and once again, the case went to the Supreme Court, where the prosecutors argued that he deserved nothing less than capital punishment. The apex authority gave the judgment in favor of the prosecution and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was awarded the death sentence.
