'Boston bombers' planned July 4 attack
The bombs used in the Boston Marathon attack were built in the apartment that suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with his wife and child, a U.S. law enforcement official with first-hand knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Thursday. The official was not authorized to release the information.
Katherine Russell, Tsarnaev's widow, has remained largely out of view inside her parents' North Kingstown home since her husband's death.
It remains unclear what, if anything, Tamerlan's widow might have known or suspected, the source added.
According to her attorney, Amato DeLuca, the 24-year-old widow knew nothing of plans to bomb the race, and reports of her husband's involvement came as an "absolute shock" to Russell and her family.
Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, initially planned to carry out a suicide-bomb attack on July 4, a U.S. law enforcement official regularly briefed on the Boston bombing investigation told CNN. The source said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators their bombs were ready earlier than they expected and they decided to move up the date.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators that the Boston Marathon was chosen as a target only a day or two before the event, the source said.
It is unclear which specific event would have been targeted but one of the biggest July Fourth celebrations in the country is held in Boston. The annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular hosts 500,000 spectators, according to the event's website. It is televised live nationally on CBS.
The revelation comes the same day the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev was claimed by his family and later was picked up by a funeral home, according to Terrel Harris, spokesman for the Massachusetts office of the chief medical examiner.
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