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'How It Really Happened with Hill Harper' Season 5: Who was Tamerlan Tsarnaev? A look at his boxing dreams, crimes and death

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a Soviet-born terrorist who, with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, planted pressure-cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon
UPDATED SEP 14, 2020
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Lamar Fenner (Getty Images)
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Lamar Fenner (Getty Images)

It was a pleasant day on April 15, 2013, when the iconic Boston Marathon began. As spectators and participants were enjoying the event, a huge tragedy struck and killed three while injuring hundreds of others. Upon investigation, it was found that two pressure cookers packed with explosives went off near the finish line at 2.49 pm. What happened seven years ago and who was involved? Was it a group? Was an international terrorist organization behind it?

Taking on the biggest crime scene Boston had ever seen, federal and local investigators jumped into action and with the help of the public and state of the art technology, several clips and images were circulated to look for two suspects dubbed “black hat” and “white hat”. This was followed by a car chase, a police officer being shot dead, a kidnapped civilian and an entire city being put on lockdown, and this is when two brothers were found to be responsible. But who were they and how did they become killers? 

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a Soviet-born terrorist who, with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, planted pressure-cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon. Here's a look at Tamerlan's life who died after a shootout with the police in the Boston suburb of Watertown. 

In this image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on April 19, 2013, two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing walk near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts (Getty Images)

Who was Tamerlan Tsarnaev?

Born as Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev on October 21, 1986, he was raised in a family forcibly moved from the war-torn former Soviet fiefdom of Chechnya to the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in the years following World War II. With half-Chechen and half-Avar descent, Tamerlan struggled through his initial years with his talented mechanic father Anzor Tsarnaev and mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva along with brother Dzhokhar. Their parents also have two daughters, Bella and Ailina.

Despite their Chechen roots, the family moved around in former Soviet states including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Dagestan. From there, they eventually traveled to Massachusetts with Dzhokhar in 2002 and his brother following two years later. An aspiring boxer, he emigrated to the United States in 2004 at the age of 18. Once there, his parents received asylum and then filed for their children, who received "derivative asylum status". The family resided on 410 Norfolk Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As per a Boston Herald report, the family was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits. 

As per an Independent report, in a 2009 photo essay shot by Boston University student Johannes Hirn, Tsarnaev could be seen posing outside the gym in front of his silver Mercedes, sporting sunglasses and white slip-on shoes. "I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them," he said, adding that he believed Americans had lost their "values". 

In this image released by the FBI on April 18, 2013, two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing walk near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts (Getty Images)

The Boston Herald report says that his descent into extremist Islam began around 2008 or 2009 when the ethnic Chechen met a convert identified as "Misha" — who was later identified as Mikhail Allakhverdov, a 39-year-old of Armenian-Ukrainian origin from Rhode Island. He soon started looking up more jihadist and conspiracy theorist websites along with the rabidly anti-Semitic propaganda tract, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Moreover, his uncle Ruslan Tsarnaev confirms that during those years, his nephew gave up drinking and was devoting himself to "God’s business".

Most shockingly, one of the things on his search list was 'How To Make a Bomb in your Mother's Kitchen'. Moreover, on Tsarnaev's Amazon.com wishlist were listed: 'How To Make Driver's Licenses and Other IDs On Your Home Computer', a paperback called 'The ID Forger' and the bestseller 'How To Win Friends and Influence People' by Dale Carnegie along with a Chechen dictionary and phrasebook. 

In May 2008, when his sister reportedly told him that her husband was cheating on her and beating her up, Tamerlan flew across the country to Bellingham, Washington, to "straighten up the brains" of his brother-in-law, Khozhugov.

In this image released by the FBI on April 19, 2013, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing walks near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts (Getty Images)

Who was he dating?

In the photo essay, he confessed he was "very religious", abstained from consuming alcohol and complained there were "no values anymore". Perhaps, it were those values that led him to an arrest for aggravated domestic assault and battery on suspicion of beating up his then live-in girlfriend, Nadine Ascencao. Reports say she called 9-1-1 for help at the time. Although the case was later dismissed for lack of prosecution, his father called it out for the delay in his eldest son gaining US citizenship.

As per an NPR report, three women who knew him told the outlet about his “dark side". Although he partied with them earlier, around the years 2008 and 2009, he became a devout Muslim and ordered his girlfriend to cover herself up and convert to Islam. The report quotes them as saying they saw Tsarnaev fly into rages and throw things. "He'd shout at his girlfriend that she was a prostitute, a slut."

The home of Warren and Judith Russell, where their daughter Katherine Tsarnaeva, the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is staying, is seen on Coriander Lane April 23, 2013, in North Kingstown, Rhode Island (Getty Images)

Going by an Independent report, Tamerlan had an on-again, off-again relationship with Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, a young American woman from a middle-class background who converted to Islam after she met him. An NPR report by Laura Sullivan states: "All the signs so far point to the fact that Katherine Russell is his wife, and that the child — that she had gotten pregnant her senior year, and the roommates say that after she got pregnant, she left school and dropped out, and she never finished college. They say that she really pulled away from her friends, that she cut off contact with them, and she also cut off contact with her family members which her friends had been in contact with."

During the investigation, her lawyer Amato DeLuca said she did not suspect her husband of anything. "When this allegedly was going on, she was working — reportedly 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week as a home health care aide — to support her family," he said. "While she was at work, her husband cared for their toddler daughter, Zahara," DeLuca added.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev waits for a decision in the 201-pound division boxing match during the 2009 Golden Gloves National Tournament of Champions May 4, 2009, in Salt Lake City, Utah (Getty Images)

Why was his boxing dream unfulfilled?

As per reports, Tamerlan trained at the Boston club Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts Center. In 2009–10, he clinched the Rocky Marciano Trophy and became the New England Golden Gloves heavyweight champion though he only competed in the National Golden Gloves finals in Salt Lake City in 2009. In May 2009, he fought in the nationals in the 201-pound weight class but lost a first-round decision.

Edwin Rodriguez, a highly-rated professional super middleweight, described Tamerlan in a Yahoo! Sports interview, "He had a little bit of a swagger to him, a real cocky kind of attitude, and he was dressed in a little of what I’d call a military look," and added, "It’s a strange feeling to know I sparred with this guy and knew him and talked with him. It’s not like we were friends, but we talked and had conversations. It is strange. It’s hard now, knowing what this coward did, to even think about it. He affected so many people, so many families. My heart just goes out to them.”

Boxing coach John Curran trained Tsarnaev until 2010. Curran told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that Tsarnaev was “a nice guy". He reportedly said, "If I was asked two days before the bombing what I thought of this young man, I would have said he was a fine young man. Very good athlete. Very courteous. Quiet, and just a nice guy. I’m shocked beyond belief that he’s involved, or that he was involved, in this." As per reports, Tamerlan wasn't an American citizen and therefore, could never get into the professional path of boxing. 

Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Lamar Fenner wait for a decision in the 201-pound division boxing match during the 2009 Golden Gloves National Tournament of Champions May 4, 2009, in Salt Lake City, Utah (Getty Images)

Shooting and subsequent death

Reportedly, Tamerlan caught the attention of the FBI during the 9/11 attacks ​when they got a tip that his family was strong believers of Islamic and extremist activities. After a couple of interviews, the FBI concluded Tamerlyn was not a threat and closed the investigation. Moreover, Tamerlan was also said to be involved in a grisly triple murder when two Jewish men, Erik Weissman and Raphael Teken, as well as their roommate Brendan Mess, were killed in Waltham, Massachusetts.

In the early hours of April 19, 2013, in Watertown, a shooting incident began when the police came across the two suspects. After being shot multiple times, Tamerlan's younger brother accidentally ran him over with an SUV and dragged him with the vehicle for 20 feet (6m), according to police.

His mother denied his involvement in the shooting, saying, "America took my kids away from me. I'm sure my kids were not involved in anything." After his body was released to the funeral service hired by the family at 5.30 pm on May 2, 2013, by the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, his death certificate read the cause as gunshot wounds to the torso and extremities, as well as blunt trauma to the head and torso. Moreover, the report also confirms he was dragged by a vehicle in addition to being shot.

Catch the explosive incident in two back-to-back episodes — 'Boston Marathon, Part 1, Reconstructing the Crime Scene' and 'Boston Marathon, Part 2, The Manhunt' — from 9 pm to 11 pm.

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