8:20:29 PM Police and FBI at odds over number of cars Boston suspects drove | |
UPDATE:An April 25th Boston Globe article may resolve the question of the Green Honda at the shootout site. ("Carjack victim recounts his harrowing night")
The Globe reports the carjack victim "Danny" saying that Dzhokhar followed the Mercedes SUV in the Honda to a quiet neighborhood in east Watertown. He then parked the Honda on the street and got into the SUV, after which they all went back to Cambridge for gas. The Globe says: Directed to a quiet neighborhood in East Watertown, Danny pulled up as told on an unfamiliar side street. The sedan stopped behind him. A man approached -- the skinnier, floppy-haired "Suspect No. 2” in the photos and videos released by investigators earlier that evening -- and Tamerlan got out, ordering Danny into the passenger seat, making it clear if he tried anything he would shoot him. For several minutes, the brothers transferred heavy objects from the smaller car into Danny’s SUV. State and local police are investigating a second car used in a shootout between police and the Boston bombing suspects, which is at odds with the official FBI account of the chase. The FBI, in its court affidavit, makes no mention of a second car, while local police investigate how the same car they believe was used in the killing of MIT police officer Sean Collier wound up at the shootout scene in Watertown. According to NBC, police maintain that a green Honda used in the killing of Collier was also at the shootout in Watertown. But the FBI's affidavit in court says that both suspects arrived in the same carjacked vehicle, a black Mercedes SUV. The investigation opens the question of who drove the green Honda. In a photograph taken by a Watertown resident who witnessed the shootout, a green Honda can be seen with its rear door open and and its headlights on, about ten feet away from the black Mercedes SUV. The photographer, who took the photos after hearing gunfire and explosions, said on his blog describing the photo: "The shooters were also driving the green sedan on the left. They had the back passenger door open and were going back into the car where they had additional supplies (assumingly, more ammunition and explosives). They also had backpacks at their feet where they also had additional supplies." In an April 27th piece "Police eye second car in Watertown shootout after Boston bombing" NBC reports: "Two cars, not one, appear to be at the center of the investigation into how the two brothers allegedly behind the Boston Marathon bombings carried out the fatal shooting of a police officer and the wounding of another during their final night rampage... Police said the suspects drove a green Honda to the location where Collier was shot and killed at the MIT campus in Cambridge. That shooting set off a string of incidents that ultimately led to the shootout between the suspects and police in Watertown. After the Cambridge shooting, the suspects carjacked a Mercedes 350 SUV at gunpoint, according to a federal affidavit. Both suspects rode in the SUV to Watertown, the affidavit says." The NBC report then notes: "However, photographs obtained by NBC News and eyewitness accounts given to NBC News producers indicate that both a green Honda and black Mercedes SUV were parked at the scene of the Watertown shooting. Several people who were near the scene that night said the Honda was positioned behind the Mercedes." In describing the carjacking in Cambridge, which took place about ten miles away from the shootout scene in Watertown, the FBI affidavit filed in Boston Federal courts states that one of the brothers tapped on the passenger side window, then when the victim rolled down the window, the man opened the passenger door and got in the car. The FBI affidavit, which was published in full by the Chicago Tribune, says: The man with the gun forced the victim to drive to another location, where they picked up a second man. The two men put something in the trunk of the victim's vehicle. The man with the gun took the victim's keys and sat in the driver's seat, while the victim moved to the front passenger seat. The second man entered the victim's vehicle and sat in the rear passenger seat. The man with the gun and the second man spoke to each other in a foreign language. While they were driving, the man with the gun demanded money from the victim, who gave the man 45 dollars. At a Shell gas station that the suspects and the alleged carjack victim had driven to in Cambridge, the victim made an escape, according to the affidavit, when the two men left the car. This week, CBS News interviewed a man who purported to be the carjack victim, whose face and voice were disguised on-camera. The man told CBS's John Miller that he escaped while the older brother Tamerlan was pumping gas and the younger brother had gone into the store for snacks. From there, the suspects are alleged to have driven to Watertown where they were tracked through the cellphone that the victim had left in the car. The FBI's version of events leaves the question of who drove the green Honda a complete mystery. NBC said: "Massachusetts State Police, combined with local law enforcement, conducted a reenactment Thursday night at the scene of the April 18 shooting of Officer Sean Collier in Cambridge, Massachusetts." In the FBI affidavit and in the CBS interview, in which the alleged carjack victim goes by the name "Danny," the victim says Tamerlan told him: "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that." The FBI affidavit, however, makes no mention of a statement made by "Danny" in the CBS interview, that "I just killed a policeman in Cambridge.</div> | |
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