Historica Wiki
Advertisement


Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (born 22 June 1993) was a Kyrgyz-American al-Qaeda sympathizer who carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing with his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev in retribution for the United States' presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. On 15 May 2015, he was sentenced to death for his role in the bombing, but his death sentence was overturned on 31 July 2020.

Biography[]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was born on 22 June 1993 in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan, the son of Chechen father Anzor Tsarnaev and Avar mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. He was born shortly after Kyrgyzstan left the USSR; his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was born in the old Kalmyk ASSR. His father Anzor raised his children as Muslims, and in 2001 the family moved to Makhachkala, Dagestan before moving to the United States in 2003, as Anzor claimed that he would be persecuted as a Chechen. Tsarnaev and his family settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his father worked as a backyard mechanic while his mother worked as a cosmetologist (until the job required her to serve men, leading to her quitting). Tsarnaev himself attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and he was said to be more concerned with cheeseburgers and girls than Islamic extremism. In 2011, the city of Cambridge gave Tsarnaev a $2,500 scholarship, and he attended University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth after finding that the college had a class on Chechen history. He hoped to become a dentist after his studies, and he was friendly with other students at college, smoking pot with them and liking rap music. His friends also considered him to be an American, as he spoke English very well.

However, Dzhokhar was inspired to join the Islamist cause by his older brother, and he posted a jihadist verse from the Quran on his Twitter feed, in addition to posting videos of the Syrian Civil War. On 15 April 2013, he followed his brother in setting off bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and wounding 264 people. The brothers attempted to flee, and he hit his brother with his car after Tamerlan was shot by police, accidentally killing his brother but managing to escape. He proceeded to kill a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) security guard before hiding in a covered boat in Watertown, where the police found him. When he raised his arm, the police shot him several times, and they then captured the wounded Tsarnaev, who was unable to speak due to a throat injury. He was tried in the federal court system as a criminal, and he was sentenced to death in 2015. On 1 July 2016, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri threatened consequences against the United States if Tsarnaev was executed. On 31 July 2020, Tsarnaev's death sentence was overturned.

Advertisement