Boston Marathon Bombing Suspects Originally Planned To Strike On July 4th

The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect has informed authorities that he and his brother originally planned to attack with their deadly explosives on the Fourth of July, but ultimately moved their plans up after finishing their bombs ahead of schedule.

According to the New York Times, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, told investigators that his brother and fellow suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, originally planned to use the pressure cooker bombs and other explosives as possible suicide bombs on a July 4th attack. However, Tsarnaev says that he and his brother, who was killed in a gun battle with police, finished the explosives much faster than they had planned.

“They built the bombs so fast that they decided to move the whole plan up,” an anonymous police official told the Boston Globe.

Working out of Tamerlan’s apartment in Cambridge, Mass., the pair finished the pressure-cooker bombs in early May and instead decided to plan their attacks to coincide with both the Boston Marathon and the Massachussetts holiday Patriots Day. The pair reportedly decided to place explosives along the finish line after driving around the planned marathon route looking for sites to strike.

“They surveyed these police stations, multiple stations in Boston and one in Cambridge,” the anonymous source said.

It is not clear if the Tsarnaev brothers had a specific target in mind when planning for their July 4th attacks. Dzhokhar indicated that the two had also considered a suicide bombing on the Fourth of July, but that was simply an idea and not a concrete plan.

The admissions from Tsarnaev came on April 21, only two days after he was captured by police while hiding in a boat in Watertown, Mass. Several hours beforehand, his brother Tamerlan was killed in the shootout with police. Tsarnaev reportedly ran over his brother’s body in a car while fleeing the scene.

When Tsarnaev woke up in Boston, he was initially unable to communicate with investigators due to a possibly self-inflicted gunshot wound in his throat. Before long, however, he was communicating with investigators via writing.

The statements from investigators come from a 48 hour period before Tsarnaev was officially charged with a crime and before investigators had read him his Miranda rights stating that he could remain silent.