Mother of Bombing Suspects: My Sons Would Never Do This And My Older Son Is Still Alive

From: Business Insider


The mother of the suspected Boston bombers has given an exclusive interview to Britain's Channel 4 in which she reiterates assertions that her sons were set up, and also claims that her oldest son Tamerlan is still alive. "What happened was a terrible thing. But I know that my kids have nothing to do with this. I know it. I am mother. I know my kids," Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told Channel 4 News in Makhachkala, Dagestan.

She said that Tamerlan, who apparently died in a gunfight with police on Thursday night, was being watched by the FBI before the attacks. "They were monitoring him and I know that because I used to talk to them," she said. "They used to come to our house, like two three times. And then my son Tamerlan used to tell me that he used to talk to them too, because they called me once and they wanted his number and then at such moments."

Notwithstanding photos that place her other son, Dzhokhar, at the scene of the second Boston Marathon bombing, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva still believes that someone else set up the attack and that her son Tamerlan is not actually dead. "It's just somebody did this, somebody set this up, not my kids," She said. "Whoever is dead over there it's not my son. The body is half of the body of my son, you know what I mean? So this is not my son."

There have been two points of speculation when it comes to the death of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaeva, who was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. after suffering gunshot and shrapnel wounds as well as burn wounds. First, a man who looks remarkably like Tamerlan was stripped naked and detained Thursday night down the street from where the firefight with police took place in Watertown, Mass. Police told Business Insider that the naked man is not Tamerlan and was eventually let go. Second, the body of the man pictured lying on the ground after the gunfight does not have visible wounds. A witness told The New York Times that the older brother was lying in the street after the shootout when the younger one ran him over while fleeing police (note: Doctors didn't see signs of him being run over). Nevertheless, the man pictured appears to be dressed differently from Tamerlan.