02x02 - Boston Marathon Manhunt: Part 2

[bunniefuu]

- There has apparently
been an expl*si*n

near the finish line
at the Boston Marathon.

- We knew we had visual
depictions of the bombers.

We just had to figure out
who they were.

- People were scared.

I remember
a lot of people saying,

this isn't the end.

- Officer down. Officer down.

- People were screaming,
dogs barking.

It was just--it was just crazy.

- We're seeing police running,
g*ns drawn,

and we have heard
multiple g*nshots.

- And Jeff dives on top of him
and starts wrestling.

I'm like, Sarge, bombs!
Get off him!

- We're asking people
to shelter in place.

- We needed to know
who radicalized them.

Are there any other
actors overseas

that are perhaps manipulating,
coordinating?

- Going street by street,
house by house,

was a massive,
massive undertaking.

Holy sh*t.

And we--we didn't have them.

- In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.

Drug busts,

mob stings,

t*rror1st takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking
agent to agent.

This is "FBI True."

- We are interrupting
programming now

because there has apparently
been an expl*si*n

near the finish line
at the Boston Marathon.

- This was a t*rror1st attack.

We knew we had visual
depictions of the bombers.

We didn't know who they were.

- People were very,
very scared.

They didn't know
what was gonna happen next.

Everybody was on high alert.

I was an overnight officer.

I worked from 11:30 p.m.
to 8:00 a.m.

When my wife woke me up
at 10:30 p.m.

to jump in the shower,
she told me--

she said,
"Honey, um, there was a--

there was an officer m*rder*d
tonight in Cambridge."

- Jeff Sallet, who was former
Associate Deputy Director

of the FBI, called me,
woke me out of bed and said,

"Boss, um,
did you see the story

"about the m*rder
of this campus police officer

at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology?"

I said, "Yeah,
I saw that when I got home."

I said, "That's really,
really strange."

Jeff said,
"Boss, our bombers are the ones

who m*rder*d--
m*rder*d that police officer."

They wanted a second g*n.
So they decided--

they saw Sean Collier
sitting there,

and knocked on the window,
put the g*n to his head,

and shot him point blank
in the head.

They tried to grab that weapon
out of Sean Collier's holster.

And even though he was
there dying, basically,

right there, Sean was
so heroic and courageous.

He held onto that g*n so hard

that they couldn't get it
out of that holster,

even after he had been shot.

And they gave up
and they fled.

- At 10:48 this evening,
shots were fired.

We did see the MIT
police chief here,

and he confirmed that one
of his officers was down.

- So I went into work,

and that's when
we also found out

that there was a carjacking.

- They carjacked a car
driven by Danny Meng,

who was from China.

And they took him hostage,
basically,

and they were preparing
to head to New York City.

They pulled into a gas station.

And Danny Meng made
the conscious decision,

and a heroic decision,
to flee the car,

and fled to a different
gas station across the road,

to the gas station attendant,

saying that they had
told him that they were

the Boston Marathon bombers.

- The vehicle was
a brand-new Mercedes.

And we all wrote it down
in our notebooks

and headed out onto the street.

- When did you figure out,
or when did you guys know,

that this was
all coming together?

- About a half hour
into my shift,

I was out on the road,
and, um, we get a tone.

If they want, uh,
total radio silence,

they put out this tone,

and then the dispatcher
starts to speak.

Very rare that it happens,
very, very rare.

But the tone goes off.

- I was in my vehicle.

Officer Joey Reynolds
was on one side,

I was on the other side,
and we were coming in.

And he says, "Sarge,
I'm right behind that vehicle.

What do you want me to do?"

I said, "Joey,
I'm pulling up behind you.

Light 'em up."

As soon as I took a left turn,
the suspect was already

out of the vehicle,
straight, straight out,

just sh**ting
right into the windshield.

Joey never got a chance
to pull them over.

The vehicle stopped,
they just got out

and started firing at him.

The first move that
Joey Reynolds made that night,

the move,
he got that part exactly right.

He stepped on the brake,
put it in reverse,

put his head
under the engine...

And just gunned it.
All of a sudden,

I see the cruiser
just coming back--

back towards me,
and he's out of the vehicle.

I can hear him firing shots.

And I'm looking
down the street now,

and I see the Mercedes

and another vehicle
in front of it,

and all the doors were open.

I--I'm looking
at six open doors,

and I'm like, you know,

did six people get out
of these vehicles?

I'm like, what do we have?
What's going on?

And there's g*nshots coming--
g*nshots coming in at us.

I didn't know where
it was all coming from.

- You saw one guy first, right?

- That's it.
I only saw one out.

It was just game on from there.

I jumped out--out of my vehicle
and engaged.

We have a button in our vehicle
to get the AR-15,

so I pushed the button.

I grab at it, I pull it,
and it doesn't come out.

It's like a nightmare.
I can feel the b*ll*ts

hitting off the vehicle.

I'm like, I gotta get--
I gotta get out of here.

I have no cover.

So I threw it in drive,
opened the door,

and I just started walking
with the vehicle.

The vehicle just keeps
creeping forward,

and I have a tree to my left.

As soon as I start to run
for the tree,

I hear an expl*si*n.

- It wasn't a g*nsh*t
any longer.

- No, no.
I didn't know what it was.

So I--I'm firing
from the tree.

I see him like--
like this, like a hook shot.

And then when it hit
the ground,

it's like, ding, da-ding.

I was like, oh!

All right. Okay.

Now I know what's going on.

So I go, "Joey, run."

We get down.

When that went off,
that was crazy.

It was so loud.

The percussion was crazy.

I mean, I literally put
my g*n back in my holster

to try to clear my eyes.

- And I'm just hearing
more g*nshots right now.

Um, and I'm smelling
something in the air

that smells like gunpowder
or burning rubber.

I'm just staying down, um,
using a car as shelter.

- Every vehicle that had
a car alarm was going off.

The people were screaming,
dogs barking.

It was just--it was just crazy.

The average g*n battle
is eight seconds

in the United States.

They're usually very short.

This was very prolonged.

- We're seeing police running,
g*ns drawn,

and we have heard
multiple g*nshots.

- The g*n battle went on
for eight minutes.

- But how did it end?

- Sergeant Pugliese,
he was done working,

heard the call come in
and said, you know what,

I'm gonna cruise up there,
and if they need my help,

you know,
I'll be there to help them.

And when he came there,

the gunfight was just going on
and going on.

We--we couldn't get
any closer to these guys.

But when
Sergeant Pugliese came,

he says, you know what,
I think I can get

a little closer if I jump
a couple of fences.

He really drew the kid out.

And they were, like,
six to eight feet

away from each other,
sh**ting at each other.

- That's crazy.

- When Pugliese runs out
of b*ll*ts,

he runs out of b*ll*ts.

The kid looks at his g*n,

throws it at Pugliese,

then turns around.

Instead of going away from us,

he's coming right back at us.

He's got nine b*ll*ts in him.

And I said,
I'm gonna k*ll you.

I'm gonna drop you.
And he--

literally, he was probably
ten feet from me.

And Pugliese just
touches his shoulder.

Comes from behind,
touches his shoulder,

and the kid just collapses.

And Pugliese dives
on top of him

and starts wrestling him.

I'm like, Sarge, bombs!

Get off him! Get off him!

I was thinking, he's gonna
wait for us to get on top,

and he's just gonna blow us up.

- Right, like a suicide b*mber.

- And I hear
Joey Reynolds says,

"Sarge, watch out.
Here he comes."

I looked up and the Mercedes
was coming back at us.

And I said, "Sarge, look out."

I push off the body,

and the Mercedes goes
right over them.

And it looks like the body
got stuck underneath it.

Back of the Mercedes lifted up
and spit it--

spit the body right out.

And we run over to the body,

and, um,
he was severely injured.

- And we get,
Sarge, one of ours, is down.

We got--we got an officer shot.

And I'm like, oh, my God,
you're kidding me.

So I run over,
and I see Reynolds

and Timmy Menton working
on a police officer.

It's an MBTA officer,
Dic Donohue.

And he was pumping.

I mean, the blood was
coming out of him so fast.

They started compressions the
minute he stopped breathing.

After getting in one
of the biggest firefights

of their--
probably their career,

and then they're saving
a police officer's life

within the next five minutes.

- That's what you guys
are trained for,

and it's amazing.

- Those--those guys were--
were amazing.

They really were.

- So once the Mercedes
leaves the scene,

do you know what happens next?

- Yeah.
So the--the Mercedes goes

through the intersection
where all the police--

police officers were
at the end of the street.

- Where the firefight
happened?

- Right. It goes up
a side road and disappears.

We had a trooper
that followed it,

and when he got
to the top of the street,

the vehicle was empty.

So I sent two K-9 units
immediately up.

- So Rick, what do you do next?

- The body was taken
to a local hospital.

- We spent about ten,
15 minutes

trying to resuscitate
this patient.

At 1:35 in the morning,
uh, he was pronounced.

- We did a quick capture
fingerprint test on him,

and that immediately
identified him

as Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

He had been on the FBI's
radar screen

prior to the bombings.

And then very shortly
thereafter determined

he had a younger brother

named Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

That was the eureka moment

where we knew the identity
of the bombers.

- So Nancy, we've identified
two individuals.

- Right.
We go in digging mode,

analytical mode,
and we start putting in

in older databases,
social platforms.

We're just trying to dig
as much as we can.

What can we find
from these individuals?

- Had these two brothers been
known to the FBI before?

- Yes.

The Russian intel services had
sent Boston a lead in 2011.

Very general lead saying,
basically,

watch for Tamerlan Tsarnaev

and Zubeidat Tsarnaev.

These two individuals are
showing radicalization.

- And who is Zubeidat?

- Yes, Zubeidat is the mother.

We needed to know,
well, who radicalized them?

Are there any other
actors overseas

that are perhaps manipulating,
coordinating, facilitating?

So many questions,
so many intel gaps.

And we're working 24/7
to try to answer it.

- Suspect number one was
k*lled in a sh**t-out,

and then the other
has escaped.

There is a massive,
massive manhunt underway.

- What happens next?

How do we know
where Dzhokhar goes?

- When I arrived
at the command post,

it was probably about--
maybe 3:30 in the morning,

in the predawn hours.

Governor Patrick decided
to order a shelter in place.

- We're asking people
to shelter in place.

In other words,
to stay indoors

with their doors locked,
and not to open the door

for anyone other
than a properly-identified

law enforcement officer.

- Which is one
of the first times,

I think,
this has ever been imposed

upon a major metropolitan area
in the United States

in response
to a terrorism attack.

- Excellent.

- And that allowed
law enforcement

to begin a grid search
of Watertown,

going street by street,
house by house,

to try to locate Dzhokhar.

It was a massive,
massive undertaking.

- And then information
had been developed

that Dzhokhar had been
a student

at University of Massachusetts
at Dartmouth.

And so we had two
FBI hostage rescue teams.

One of the teams went down
to UMass Dartmouth

and ex*cuted a search
of the dorm room.

We thought that
that was our best opportunity

to capture Dzhokhar.

After a few minutes passed,

the hostage team leader
got on the radio

and said,
"No, Dzhokhar is not here."

And that was the lowest point,
and we didn't have him.

The friends intentionally
disposed of evidence

and were subsequently charged
with obstruction of justice.

We were all just absolutely
exhausted at that point.

We'd been getting two
or three hours of sleep a night

for days, so I said,
it's time to switch out.

We're gonna switch out teams.

I've got to go home
and get some rest.

The shelter in place was lifted
late that afternoon.

- In light of the, uh,
status of the investigation

here in Watertown and the, um,

developments in the course
of the day,

the stay indoors
request is lifted.

- The news comes out
and says at 6:00,

okay, everybody can
go outside now.

One of our residents,
David Henneberry,

he has a boat in his yard
that's covered in shrink wrap.

He says, "I see my shrink wrap,
it's flapping in the wind,

"and I go over,
and there's blood on it.

"And I climb up the ladder,
and I look, and there's a body.

There's a body in the boat."

And he calls 911.

- Once they determined
that Dzhokhar was in there,

the boat was surrounded.

- Shots break out then.

And I think something like
a hundred shots

were fired into that boat.

I'm driving home,
and I'm listening to WBZ,

and they're saying
"Shots fired in Watertown.

Shots fired in Watertown."

And I just got off
the next exit

and headed back into Watertown.

There was a state police
and FBI helicopters up above,

taking photographs.

They had their infrared
FLIR radar system.

You could see
the outline of Dzhokhar,

the heat signature of his body
laying inside the boat.

What we didn't know is
whether he had more bombs,

so we didn't know
whether he was gonna

blow himself up in the boat.

There were four
or five flash-bangs

that were thrown in.

And it was pretty dramatic.

Somehow Dzhokhar survived,
which is pretty remarkable.

- The FBI Hostage Rescue Team
took the lead

and tried to negotiate
Dzhokhar out of the boat.

Eventually Dzhokhar did emerge,

and he was arrested.

- And that's when I had
the most intense feeling

of relief I've ever had
in my life.

- With Dzhokhar being found
in the boat,

didn't you guys do an exception

where the Miranda Rights
weren't read to him?

- That's true.

The director of the FBI
called me and said,

"Do not read Dzhokhar
his Miranda Rights,"

because there is an exception
to the Miranda Rights rule

where you are allowed
to question a subject

about any other imminent
threats that he's aware of

before you have to read him
his Miranda rights.

- Did they find anything
in the boat with him?

- He had written
a jihadi manifesto

inside the cabin of the boat.

- So what happened next?

- Dzhokhar was hospitalized,

so I think it was
a day or so before we--

he was ready to be interviewed
by FBI agents.

But the FBI agents spent,
I'd say,

a couple of days
interviewing him

before Carmen Ortiz,
the United States Attorney,

said that we're not gonna
get anything more out of him.

At that point,
we Mirandized him.

- So after everything
is said and done,

did the city take
a big sigh of relief?

What happened?

- As I drove back to head home,

people were pouring out
of the businesses.

Just waving American flags,
cheering law enforcement.

It was one of the most
moving things I had seen

in my 26-year career
in the FBI.

- It was nice to be
part of something

that brought some pride
to the police department

and to the--to the state.

- That's what led
to Boston Strong.

That phrase,
it was--was borne out

of the Boston Marathon bombing
tragedy and investigation.

- Nancy, what do you do next?

The immediate threat is done.
- Mm-hmm.

- We don't know
if they have anybody else,

any associates that are still
working with them.

- Precisely, yes.
There were so many intel gaps

that we had to move quickly.

- So Nancy,
what did you identify?

- The father, Anzor,

he was not really
a big father figure.

The mother, she first
emigrated to the United States

with Dzhokhar back in 2003,

leaving behind Tamerlan
and his two sisters,

Bella and Alina,
who traveled here in 2003.

And they all got
their permanent residence.

- In the Boston area?
- In the Boston area.

- So when the family got here,

did they assimilate
into regular society?

- Yes.
They--they assimilated well.

Dzhokhar was going to school.

Tamerlan was a boxer.

Tamerlan was going out
to nightclubs,

he was partying, just being
a normal, Americanized Chechen.

- They didn't appear
to be radicalized.

- But Zubeidat wasn't too happy
with his behavior,

so she slowly started
to tell him that

that was not consistent
with Islam.

- So during the bombing,

where was Zubeidat
and Anzor in 2013?

Were they still in the US,
or they were gone?

- They were gone.
The Russian services captured

a conversation
between Zubeidat Tsarnaev

and Rizman Amamakiv,
the ex-husband of Bella.

And they talk about

how Tamerlan is very ready
for jihad.

And Zubeidat,
she expresses how she herself

would like to die a martyr.

She knew that Tamerlan was
on the path

to conduct an attack.

She knew his ideology
was strong enough

that he was ready to--
to engage in jihad.

We started also finding
a distant cousin

of Tamerlan's is the leader
of the Union of the Just.

And they are not, per se,
a t*rror1st organization,

but they advocate
against the United States.

Our investigation was never
able to determine

if he had been recruited
by Al-Qaeda

or the Union of the Just.

- So there was some sort of
radicalization going on,

but not to maybe
a certain group?

- Exactly.
We couldn't--

- At this point, pinpoint that.
- We couldn't pinpoint it.

- But we didn't know
if Zubeidat and Anzor knew

what Tamerlan
and Dzhokhar were gonna do.

- Exactly.

- The federal jury
convict Dzhokhar

of crimes of mass destruction
and t*rror1st activities,

and impose the death penalty
upon him,

which I think speaks
to the gravity of the crimes

that he and his brother
committed.

It's sort of interesting
when you think about

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial.

His legal team didn't even try
to argue guilt or innocence.

They more or less
conceded it as guilt.

- Were the friends
involved at all?

- It took a team
of FBI agents in hazmat suits

about four or five days

of wading through a rainstorm
at a landfill.

But we found evidence

that they had
specifically disposed of

for the purposes of impeding
the federal investigation.

So both of those Kazakhstani
friends were subsequently

charged with obstruction
of justice.

- Based on what we learned
from the Boston Marathon,

now the FBI has established
a risk threat tool

that sort of alerts us
if we have a subject

who's potentially going to
mobilize in the United States.

- You always think about those
who lost their lives.

You think about
Krystle Campbell,

Lingzi Lu,

Martin Richard,

all the lives that were
impacted by this.

Sean Collier gave his life
for the city of Boston

and the city of Watertown,
but he saved lives himself.

He saved lives.

- Absolutely a hero.

- Danny Meng did
the right thing.

And David Henneberry did
the right thing.

- Every single person
who was there,

even the--you know,
the civilians that were there

that became first responders,

I mean, they'll never forget
any of this stuff.

That's--it's not over
for a lot of people, you know?

It's not just a story,
you know?

It's--it's their life.