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Leaked images reveal inside story of dramatic capture of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev

New photographs show fugitive cornered by police four days after the attack which killed three and wounded more than 150

Majid Mohamed
Wednesday 28 August 2013 16:03 BST
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Dramatic new photos taken by a state police officer show the Boston Marathon bombing suspect climbing out of a boat as heavily-armed officers wait for him to drop to surrender.

Angered by the Rolling Stone cover featuring Dzokhar Tsarnaev, Sergeant Sean Murphy, who took the photos as agents cornered the suspect, released images without permission from Massachusetts state police department and handed them to Boston Magazine. Some images were published in July but the magazine has decided to release more.

The police officer took photographs on the April night police surrounded Dzokhar in a dry-docked boat in Watertown, just outside Boston.

The new photos include more shots of Dzokhar coming out of the boat, his head bloody and a red laser trained on his head. They also show him dropping to the ground, where officers and medical crews rushed to treat him.

Sgt Murphy was upset at Rolling Stone for 'glamourising' the suspect and decided to hand the pictures to Boston Magazine: “What Rolling Stone did was wrong,” he said. “This guy is evil. This is the real Boston bomber. Not someone fluffed and buffed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.”

The bloodied Boston Marathon bombing suspect as he leaves the boat

Earlier this month it was revealed that Dzokhar was shot in the face and suffered multiple and severe gunshot wounds during his arrest.

Trauma surgeon Dr Stephen Ray Odom, who treated the 20-year-old at Beth Israel Medical Center, revealed that Dzokhar sustained a gunshot wound that appeared to enter through the left side of his mouth and exit through the lower left side of his face.

Dr Odom detailed the then 19-year-old's condition in a hearing the day the Chechen immigrant, who was lying in a Boston hospital bed, was first charged over the bombing on April 15 that killed three people and wounded hundreds.

"He has multiple gunshot wounds, the most severe of which appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left face, lower face. This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in skull-base fracture," said Dr Odom in testimony given on April 22, according to unsealed court papers.

Dzokhar also sustained multiple wounds to his legs and arm but was alert and aware of his surroundings, Dr Odom said.

Dzokhar Tsarnaev surrenders

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, who lived in nearby Cambridge, were identified as suspects in the bombings.

Dzokhar was arrested on April 19, four days after the bombing attack. His arrest followed a mass manhunt and the lockdown of most of the Boston area, during which his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan died.

Dzokhar pleaded not guilty to an array of charges connected to the bombing in a court hearing last month.

Dzokhar and his elder brother Tamerlan, who died following a shootout with police in the early hours of 19 April, are alleged to have detonated the two bombs at around 2:49pm on the day of the marathon.

Along with setting off the pressure-cooker bomb that killed three people near the marathon finish line in downtown Boston, the brothers are also accused of murdering MIT police officer Sean Collier by shooting him in the head on the night of 18 April.

Police arrest Dzokhar Tsarnaev after he stepped out of the boat where he was hiding

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