Tsarnaev defended killing in writings, witness saysThe Boston Globe | March 10, 2015
By Milton J. Valencia, Patricia Wen, Kevin Cullen, John R. Ellement and Martin FinucaneHiding from police in a boat covered in shrinkwrap parked in the backyard of a Watertown home, Boston Marathon terror bomber Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev wrote in pencil that he believed his Islamic faith permitted the killing of innocents in defense of other Muslims, a witness testified Tuesday.
Tsarnaev’s writings inside the boat were presented to the jury in US District Court in Boston, where Tsarnaev is on trial for his role in the April 15, 2013, bombings that killed three people and wounded 260 others.
On Tuesday, Boston Police Officer Todd Brown, a member of the department’s bomb squad, testified that he searched the boat to make sure that there were no explosive devices in it after Tsarnaev was discovered hiding there.
No bombs were found, but Brown said he did notice some writing in pencil, words that were partially obscured by blood stains in some places and defaced by bullet holes in others.
“I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger…US Government is killing our innocent civilians,’’ Tsarnaev allegedly wrote in the boat. “Now I don’t like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [bullet hole] it is allowed. All credit goes [bullet hole].”
Photographs of the note showed Tsarnaev’s penmanship was remarkably firm and neat, and the clarity of the note suggested he wrote it before several bullets were fired into the boat when it was surrounded by police.
Tsarnaev was located in the boat after he and his older brother, Tamerlan, allegedly murdered MIT Police Officer Sean Collier on April 18, 2013, and then engaged in a violent confrontation early on April 19, 2013. In that confrontation, a Transit Police officer was shot and Tamerlan was fatally wounded when he was shot and his brother drove over him, authorities have said.
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