Life is uncertain, and the biggest fault of each and every individual is that they start believing that it is something permanent that nobody can take from them. The Netflix docuseries “American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing” makes us realize how important it is to savor each and every moment, as you never know when your life can turn upside down. All those innocent people who gathered in Boston on the third Monday of April to take part in one of the biggest extravaganzas, had never thought that they would be scarred for life and that they would have to deal with the trauma of seeing their own get massacred in front of their eyes. Karen Mcwatters would have never thought that on April 15, 2013, she would be seeing her friend Krystal Campbell for the very last time.
Two bombs exploded in quick succession near the finish line of the race; the people present at the scene didn’t realize what exactly had happened. When the law enforcement authorities arrived at the scene, they knew that the first thing that they needed to ascertain was if it was an accident or an act of terrorism. Ed Davis, the commissioner of police, knew that unless and until they had solid proof, they couldn’t just presume anything. The investigation teams finally found out that the perpetrators had used pressure cooker bombs and that the intention was to spread fear. Once that was clear, the FBI was called on board, and the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber began.
How Did The Authorities Catch Tamerlan Tsarnaev? How Did Tamerlan Die?
The first proper evidence that Kevin Swindon from the FBI’s cyber division got was the footage from a restaurant named Forum. It showed a guy wearing a white cap leaving a bag in the crowded side lane and then suspiciously escaping from the scene minutes before the bag exploded. From the CCTV camera installed in another cafe named Whisky Bar, the authorities got to know that, apart from the white-cap guy, there was another who wore a black cap, and it seemed like both of them were operating together. But that blurry footage was not enough to get to those guys, and the authorities knew they would have to get some other strong leads to know about their whereabouts.
Danny Meng, an entrepreneur, was sitting in his car in Cambridge, Massachusetts when someone came to his vehicle and asked him to lower his window. Both Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sat inside his car and told him to drive and not raise a flag if he wanted to stay alive. When they stopped at a gas station, Meng realized that he would have to take the risk and try to escape from there. It was probably the toughest decision of Meng’s life because he knew that if the brothers caught him, they would not leave him alive. But that day, fortune favored Meng, and his courage paid off. Meng ran across the street, went to the nearest store, and called 911 to inform them of what had happened. The brothers had no qualms about telling Meng that they were responsible for the Boston bombings, and the casualness of the tone sent shivers down his spine. Before hijacking Danny Meng’s car, the Tsarnaev brothers had killed a police officer named Sean Collier, and that is why there was a lot of anger among the police officers, and they wanted to teach the perpetrators a lesson and set a precedent for times to come.
Even after getting the information from Meng, the police officers knew that they would have a hard time locating his black Mercedes, but just then, something miraculous happened. Meng, surprisingly, remembered his GPS tracking number, and that made the work for the law enforcement authorities easier.
The black Mercedes was found in Watertown, and the concerned authorities were alerted about it. John Maclellan and his other colleagues working with the Watertown police started following the car, and according to the residents living in the area, there was mayhem on the streets, and all they could hear was the deafening sounds of multiple shots being fired from both ends. The Tsarnaev brothers started throwing explosives at the police officers, and that’s when John Maclellan and his team realized that they would need reinforcements. The cavalry finally came in, and after a deadly combat, the police were able to catch Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Before they could take him into custody, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sat in the SUV and ran over his brother. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was taken to the hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries, and the police were once again stranded in the dark without any sort of evidence at hand.
Why Did Tamerlan Tsarnaev Become The Boston Marathon Bomber?
Up until then, the local police at Watertown didn’t know that the person they had caught was not just a carjacker but the Boston marathon bomber. Once the FBI got his fingerprints and ran it through their database, they got to know that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a Chechen national who had been staying in Cambridge for a very long time. As soon as the name of the perpetrators was revealed, Rick Deslauriers, the special agent in charge of the investigation, realized the blunder that they had committed in the past. The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) had informed the United States of America that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was involved in terrorist activities and could be a threat to the nation. The FBI, after doing their ground research, came to the conclusion that Tamerlan Tsarnaev wasn’t as much of a threat as the Russian authorities were perceiving him to be.
Society branded Tsarnaev as a devil, but David Filipo, a Boston Globe reporter, still wanted to know what triggered him to commit such an offense, as he believed that nobody was born a sinner. Tsarnaev’s family had migrated to the United States of America during the first Chechnya War of Independence that was waged against the Russian Federation. Anzor Tsarnaev moved to Boston with his four children and wife, as he wanted his family to have the best of lives and get opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have in their homeland. Anzor recognized the talent of his eldest son, and he knew that one day, he would become a great boxer.
That’s when Tamerlan got in touch with John Allan, his boxing coach, and together they started working towards the dream of winning an Olympic medal. John had a lot of faith in Tamerlan’s talent, as the boy had a very strong foundation because his father had trained him day and night before making him join a formal coaching institute. Tamerlan was all set to go to the Olympics trials when he got to know that, because of a change in rules, only citizens of the United States of America could be a part of the American Olympic contingent. Tamerlan was disheartened as he saw his dream of winning a gold medal crumbling in front of his own eyes. That became a turning point in Tamerlan’s life, and he decided to turn towards religion because nobody else seemed to have an answer as to why he was being subjected to such injustice when it was not his fault. He was talented, and he was ready to put in the hard work, but his fate now depended upon something that he didn’t have any say over, namely, his ethnicity.
Tamerlan went to Dagestan, and from there, he started over-associating with his religion. Tamerlan’s perspective was flawed, and he no longer wanted to find a rational explanation for anything. There was discontent that was brewing inside him that had the potential of turning into hatred. He was like an active volcano that could erupt at any moment, and that is exactly what happened on that fateful day. Tamerlan had lost his sense of purpose and he had stopped valuing his life. Vengeance became the only fuel that kept him going. The tragedy was that he not only killed innocent people for no rhyme or reason but also ruined his and his brother’s lives, who somewhere got inspired by him and became a co-conspirator in the Boston Marathon Bombings.
