Salon.com > Bridget Murphy

FBI: 3 removed backpack from bombing suspect’s room

Wed, 01 May 2013 19:32:00 +0000

BOSTON (AP) — Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and accused Wednesday of removing a backpack containing fireworks emptied of gunpowder from Tsarnaev's dorm room three days after the attack to try to keep him from getting into trouble.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice. A third man, Robel Phillipos, was charged with lying to investigators about the visit to Tsarnaev's room.

In court papers, the FBI said Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev agreed to throw the backpack in the garbage — it was later found in a landfill by law enforcement officers — after concluding from news reports that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was one of the bombers.

A court appearance for the three was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Their lawyers refused to comment ahead of the hearing.

Three people were killed and more than 260 injured on April 15 when two bombs exploded near the finish line. The suspect's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died after a gunfight with police days later. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, was captured and lies in a prison hospital.

2 of 3 new bombing suspects from Kazakhstan

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:47:00 +0000

BOSTON (AP) — Three more suspects were taken into custody in the Boston Marathon bombing case, including two college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who came to the U.S. from Kazakhstan, officials said Wednesday.

The allegations against them were not immediately disclosed. Gov. Deval Patrick, who said he was briefed on the investigation, told reporters it's his understanding that the suspects had nothing to do with the bombings but helped the suspect after the fact.

Three people were killed and more than 260 injured on April 15 when two bombs exploded near the finish line. Suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with police several days later. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured and lies in a hospital prison.

Linda Cristello, a Boston attorney who represented Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev in immigration court Wednesday morning, said her clients now face separate federal charges and have an afternoon court appearance related to the bombing case.

The two have been held in jail for more than a week on allegations that they violated their student visas while attending the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Neighbors remember 8-year-old marathon victim

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:28:00 +0000

BOSTON (AP) — A young victim of the Boston Marathon bombings is being remembered as a vivacious boy who loved to run and climb.

Congressman Stephen Lynch, a friend of the family, says 8-year-old Martin Richard was among the three people killed in the explosions Monday. The boy's mother and sister were badly injured.

Lynch says the family had gone to get some ice cream and then to the finish line to watch some friends cross. He describes them as a strong family and says they're doing better than expected.

A candle burned on the stoop of the family's single-family home in the city's Dorchester section, and the word "Peace" was written in chalk on the front walkway. A child's bicycle helmet lay overturned on the front lawn.

Blizzard headed to Northeast

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:54:00 +0000

BOSTON (AP) -- A blizzard of potentially historic proportions threatened to strike the Northeast with a vengeance Friday, with 1 to 2 feet of snow forecast along the densely populated Interstate 95 corridor from the New York City area to Boston and beyond.

Halfway through what was looking like a merciful winter, people stocked up on food and other storm supplies, and road crews from Pennsylvania to Maine readied salt and sand ahead of what forecasters warned could be one for the record books.

Boston and Providence, R.I., called off school on Friday, and airlines canceled more than 500 flights and counting, with the disruptions certain to ripple across the U.S.

In Taunton, Mass., National Weather Service meteorologist Alan Dunham said southern New England has seen less than half its normal snowfall this season, but "we're going to catch up in a heck of a hurry," with 1 1/2 to 2 feet forecast.

"Everybody's going to get plastered with snow," he said.

The snow is expected to start Friday morning, with the heaviest amounts falling at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts could reach 65 mph. Widespread power failures were feared, along with flooding in coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.

Stephen King: My mother-in-law scares me

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 01:58:00 +0000

Stephen King loves scaring people, but one student at University of Massachusetts Lowell tried to find out Friday what scares him.

"Spiders, snakes ... my mother-in-law," the writer said with a grin.

The author of international bestselling books including "Carrie" and "The Shining" came to the college to talk with writing students.

English Department professor Andre Dubus III, another bestselling author and an old friend of King's, shared the stage for about an hour as students asked questions about their craft.

King told the crowd of about 125 students that his goal is to write stories that sizzle with emotion.

"I'm a confrontational writer. I want to be in your face. I want to get into your space. I want to get within kissing distance, hugging distance, choking distance, punching distance. Call it whatever you want. But I want your attention."

He got that Friday, plus some laughs.

Wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, the 65-year-old writer from Maine peppered his talk with profanity and promised students he was just a regular guy.

He said they shouldn't be in awe like he was when he was a University of Maine freshman and heard a talk from "Catch-22" author Joseph Heller.

Parents: Sharing of Yale grad’s essay is a comfort

Tue, 29 May 2012 14:45:00 +0000

WAYLAND, Mass. (AP) — "What we have to remember is that we can still do anything," Marina Keegan wrote to fellow Yale University graduates. "... We can't, we must not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it's all we have."

Three days after the Yale alumna's death in a car crash, her parents, Tracy and Kevin Keegan, said from their Massachusetts home that it was comforting that even strangers were drawing inspiration from their daughter's words as her last newspaper column spread across the Internet.

"I would love my daughter's words, few as they may be, to be shared," Tracy Keegan said. "... That's all that's left of her now, her words."

Yale Daily News Editor Max de La Bruyere said Tuesday that the newspaper put Keegan's print column online as a tribute following her death Saturday on Cape Cod. He said it had gotten 400,000 hits on the newspaper's website after first spreading through Yale students' Facebook and Twitter accounts. The newspaper tracked readers as far away as Asia.

"It's a huge outpouring of sympathy," he said. "People are very moved by it."