At a Friday morning gathering with reporters in Montgomery County, Md., an uncle of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings on Friday expressed anger toward his nephews.
Asked what prompted his nephews, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev and 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to carry out the bombings that left three people dead, Ruslan Tsarni was blunt.
“Being losers, hatred to those who were able to settle themselves,” Tsarni said. “These are the only reasons I can imagine of. Anything else, anything else to do with religion, with Islam, is a fake.”
Tsarni acknowledged that he hasn’t seen his nephews since 2005, but insisted that his brother and the father of the two suspects, Anzor Tsarnaev, had no role in radicalizing the two men. Anzor Tsarnaev told the Associated Press that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who remains at large, is a “true angel.” Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in an early Friday morning firefight with police.
Tsarni forecfully urged Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to surrender to authorities and said his nephew brought shame to his family and the Chechnyan people.
“I say, Dzhokhar, if you’re alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the injured and from those who left,” Tsarni said. “Ask forgiveness from these people.”
