Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. (Credit: Reuters)
How and why the Boston Marathon bombers received tax-payer funded welfare funds will be the subject of an invesigation by state lawmakers.
The House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight held a brief meeting Monday afternoon during which its chairman Rep. David Linsky vowed an investigation into how the men accused of setting off two bombs along the Boston Marathon route, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others, and fatally shooting an MIT officer were able to receive funds for about a decade.
“I will asure the members of the public that this committee will actively review every single piece of information that we can find on this particular inquiry because clearly the public has a right to know what benefits, if any, this family and the individuals who are accused of horrific, horrific crimes were receiving,” Linsky said.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a gunfight with police in Watertown April 19. He was unemployed while his wife worked as a health aide, according to various media reports. Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, was a student at UMass Dartmouth and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. He is recovering in a federal medical facility.
The Herald reported that Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his family received welfare checks until last year.
The Department of Transitional Assistance has turned over more than 400 pages of documents related to the Tsarnaev family’s welfare payments, Linsky said. He declined to discuss the details of those documents.
Linsky said the committee would hold a hearing at a later date to reveal and seek more information and to solicit testimony from state officials in charge of welfare.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
