Violence & Brawls ·
The Escape Through the Watertown Shootout
Officers testified that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev drove over his wounded brother as they tried to restrain him. A district attorney’s investigation later closed without prosecution.
As three officers tried to handcuff a wounded Tamerlan Tsarnaev on a Watertown street, a stolen Mercedes SUV came toward them with his younger brother, Dzhokhar, at the wheel. Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese later testified that he tried to pull Tamerlan aside and rolled out of the vehicle’s path. “The black SUV, it was right in my face,” he said. “I looked down, and I saw the front wheels were over Tamerlan.”
The encounter came early on April 19, 2013, four days after the Boston Marathon bombings killed three people and injured more than 260. The previous evening, MIT police officer Sean Collier, 27, had been found shot in his vehicle in Cambridge and was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital. Police then received reports of an armed carjacking. Location information from the stolen Mercedes led officers to Watertown.
According to the Middlesex district attorney’s investigation, Officer Joseph Reynolds began following the Mercedes while waiting for backup. It turned onto Laurel Street, where it and a Honda Civic traveling ahead of it stopped. Tamerlan emerged from the Mercedes and fired at Reynolds, who backed his cruiser away. Investigators later determined that Dzhokhar had been driving the Honda.
At Dzhokhar’s federal trial in 2015, Reynolds described watching muzzle flashes as more officers arrived. “I couldn’t count it. It was nonstop,” he testified. He saw a wick and a lighter, then an object flying through the air. Its explosion shook him to his knees. Officers testified that the brothers threw pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker bomb during the confrontation.
Pugliese said he approached through backyards and fired low, aiming to make bullets ricochet toward the brothers’ ankles. Tamerlan charged toward him, firing, until they were six to eight feet apart. Then, Pugliese testified, Tamerlan appeared to have trouble with his pistol and threw it at him. Pugliese tackled him as he tried to run. While officers struggled to restrain Tamerlan, Dzhokhar drove the SUV toward them, ran over his brother and dragged him 25 to 30 feet, Pugliese said. The SUV struck a police cruiser before Dzhokhar escaped. Tamerlan died after the confrontation.
Police fired at the fleeing Mercedes from several directions. MBTA police officer Richard Donohue was struck near the corner of Laurel Street and Dexter Avenue. The district attorney’s investigation found that the brothers’ recovered pistol was already on the ground and could not have caused his wound; no other firearm tied to them was recovered. Officers began CPR after Donohue stopped breathing and they could find no pulse. The investigation closed without prosecution, concluding that the officers who fired had acted in self-defense or defense of others.
Dzhokhar was captured that evening in a boat behind a Watertown home, after a manhunt that had halted public transit and prompted orders for residents in several communities to remain indoors. At his trial, his lawyer acknowledged his participation in the bombings and later crimes but argued that Tamerlan had recruited him and was the mastermind. Prosecutors described Dzhokhar as a full and willing participant. He was convicted in April 2015 of federal offenses related to the bombings and subsequent crimes.
During the trial, jurors inspected the boat while Dzhokhar sat nearby with his attorneys and U.S. marshals. They walked around its exterior, then went two at a time onto a lift to look inside. More than 100 bullet holes were marked with small pieces of white evidence tape.