Salon.com > Eric Tucker

Family to claim Boston bombing suspect’s body

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:38:00 +0000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Relatives of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing will claim his body now that his wife has agreed to release it, an uncle said as officials in both Washington and Russia deepened their investigations into him and his ties.

The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, has been at the medical examiner's office in Massachusetts since he died after a gunfight with authorities more than a week ago.

Amato DeLuca, the Rhode Island attorney for his widow, Katherine Russell, said Tuesday that his client had just learned that the medical examiner was ready to release Tsarnaev's body and that she wants it released to his side of the family.

Police said Tsarnaev ran out of ammunition before his brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene. His cause of death has been determined but will not be made public until his remains are claimed.

"Of course, family members will take possession of the body," uncle Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. "We'll do it. We will do it. A family is a family."

He would not elaborate. Tsarnaev's parents are still in Russia, but he has other relatives on his side of the family in the U.S., including Tsarni.

Bombing suspect mentored by Muslim radical

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:46:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the years before the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev fell under the influence of a new friend, a Muslim convert who steered the religiously apathetic young man toward a strict strain of Islam, family members said.

Under the tutelage of a friend known to the Tsarnaev family only as Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing and stopped studying music, his family said. He began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Jews controlled the world.

"Somehow, he just took his brain," said Tamerlan's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, who recalled conversations with Tamerlan's worried father about Misha's influence. Efforts over several days by The Associated Press to identify and interview Misha have been unsuccessful.

Tamerlan's relationship with Misha could be a clue in understanding the motives behind his religious transformation and, ultimately, the attack itself. Two U.S. officials say he had no tie to terrorist groups.

Throughout his religious makeover, Tamerlan maintained a strong influence over his siblings, including Dzhokhar, who investigators say carried out the deadly attack by his older brother's side, killing three and injuring 264 people.

Colleges offer veterans classes to ease transition

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:15:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — The students in the Saturday morning class trickle in and, as they introduce themselves around a table, reveal far more intimate biographies than just name and hometown.

One confesses to demons he struggles to control. Another says he's here to find a community. "Forgive me," an Iraq war veteran begins haltingly. "I have to use notes. I have a brain injury."

The students are participants in a veterans writing seminar at George Washington University, where for two days they immerse themselves in the basics of the craft and learn how to plumb for therapeutic and creative purposes their experiences in places like Iraq, Bosnia and Vietnam. The class is a non-credit weekend seminar open to veterans and their relatives, but the university plans to soon adapt the model into a for-credit semester-long course for student veterans.

The seminar is part of a trend of veterans-only courses offered at colleges and universities, part of a concerted effort to cater to a population that tends to be older, more experienced and farther removed from the classroom than traditional undergraduates.

Demoted policeman sues over Sheen escort in DC

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:41:27 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — A D.C. police captain who was demoted after actor Charlie Sheen received a high-speed police escort to a performance has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the department.

Hilton Burton alleges in his suit that he was punished for saying that police escorts for celebrities were a common practice. That statement contradicted Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who said the escort broke department protocol.

Burton's lawyer says the suit seeks at least $6 million.

Burton was demoted from commander to captain about a month after testifying before the D.C. Council. He was also transferred from his division.

Lanier has said the demotion wasn't connected to the escort or to Burton's testimony. She didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cal Ripken Jr.: Mom’s kidnapping ‘bizarre’

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:11:37 +0000

BALTIMORE (AP) — Cal Ripken Jr. said Friday that his family and the police were still searching for answers about the kidnapping of his mother last week, a crime he called both bizarre and unsettling.

The Hall of Fame infielder, speaking publicly for the first time about the abduction, said he doesn't know why his 74-year-old mother, Vi, was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home outside Baltimore, blindfolded and driven around for nearly 24 hours. She was found unharmed in her car early the next morning, near her home.

He said there's reason to believe the kidnapping was planned in advance, but he said he can't be sure and doesn't know why she was targeted.

"It's bizarre in many ways," he said.

Investigators say there was no ransom demand, and the elder Ripken has said her abductor appeared not to know that she was the mother of the retired Baltimore Oriole who owns baseball's record for most consecutive games played. Police have said little about the investigation but have released a sketch of a suspect and video surveillance footage pulled from a store.

Metallica helps FBI try to catch Virginia killer

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:12:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Metallica has made a public service announcement to help authorities try to find a man wanted in the killing of a Virginia Tech student.

Morgan Harrington disappeared after an October 2009 Metallica show in Charlottesville, Va. Her remains were found three months later in a hayfield about 10 miles from the concert venue.

The FBI says it has DNA linking the suspect to a sexual assault in Fairfax County in 2005. But authorities aren’t sure who the man is and are seeking the public’s help identifying him.

The FBI and Virginia State Police announced the multimedia campaign Wednesday.

Suspicious vehicle found near the Pentagon

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:07:30 +0000

One person was taken into custody early Friday in connection with an investigation into a suspicious vehicle near the Pentagon, authorities said.

U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser said the man was in Arlington National Cemetery overnight, when it is closed, triggering an investigation. In the course of interviewing the man, police were directed to a car, he said.

"This is an unfolding situation," Schlosser said, adding that the proximity of the car to the Pentagon made the situation more suspicious.

Pentagon police spokesman Chris Layman said the car was in bushes near the Pentagon's north parking lot. One or two other people may have been involved, Layman said.

Police were investigating a suspicious package in the vehicle, said a U.S. official familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.

In another incident earlier this week, a motorist found with a gun and what appeared to be a suspicious package near the Pentagon was taken into custody.

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Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor, Jessica Gresko and Karen Mahabir contributed to this report.

Settlers-vs.-Indians board game rankles tribes

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:48:00 +0000

One player racks up points by defeating Native American tribal leaders, the other by snuffing out settlements of English colonists. Capture Boston or Plymouth Colony? Victory is yours.

That's the gist of "King Philip's War," a board game based on a bloody and violent clash of the same name between colonists and Indian tribes in 17th-century New England, and developed by a company partly owned by former major league pitcher Curt Schilling.

The game's designer says he hopes to educate children and others about a war that cost thousands of lives but receives scant attention in history books. But some Native Americans want the game blocked from release, saying it trivializes the conflict and insensitively perpetuates a stereotype of Indian tribes as bellicose savages.

Tribal members protested the game in Providence last month, and a Facebook group with more than 260 members urges a Maryland-based company, MultiManPublishing, to halt production.

"From what I've seen right now: totally inappropriate, highly offensive, nowhere near ready to be in production," said Annawon Weeden, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoags in Massachusetts, who is familiar with the game but has not played it. "It's just a way to have fun reliving a tragedy."

Eastern floods scatter residents as worst awaits

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:16:00 +0000

Flooding across the Northeast forced hundreds of residents from their homes by Wednesday, knocked out sewage plants, and snarled traffic on major East Coast routes as roads transformed into a soaked labyrinth of detours and closures.

As three days of record-breaking rains tapered to a drizzle, forecasters warned the worst of widespread flooding from Maine to New York was still ahead as rivers were yet to crest -- for the second time in a month.

In Rhode Island, a coastal state enduring the most severe damage, residents were experiencing the worst flooding in more than 100 years. Stretches of Interstate 95, the main route linking Boston to New York, were closed and could remain shut for days.

Non-essential state workers in Rhode Island were given the day off, and state officials asked schools and private businesses to consider closing, as well. Officials in water-weary Warwick asked residents to avoid washing clothes or flushing the toilet after a water and sewage treatment plant failed. The state also asked people to stay off highways and local roads.

"None of us alive have seen the flooding that we are experiencing now or going to experience," Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri said. "This is unprecedented in our state's history."