Police have released a video of eight men they are looking to speak with about a possible bias attack Sunday evening that left one man with a broken nose and another with a bruised hand. 

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  Eight sought in Midtown bias attack

A group of men approached two men in front of a McDonald’s on Eighth Avenue near Madison Square Garden at around 6:45 p.m. and shouted anti-gay remarks at them, cops said. The suspects then pushed the victims to the ground and punched one of them in the face.

Police released a photo of one of the suspects Tuesday. They released a new video Wednesday showing the same suspect walking with seven other men. Detectives are looking to speak with the men in the video regarding the incident. 

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577.

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Gina DeJesus, one of three missing women rescued from captivity Monday, has returned to her family’s Cleveland home amidst an outpouring of support from the community. The crowd gathered outside her family’s home erupted in cheers as Gina, wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt, emerged from a minivan and was quickly ushered into the house. Her family members embraced each other in jubilation after her arrival.

“I want to thank everybody that believed,” DeJesus’ mother said to the crowd. “Even the ones that doubted,  I want to thank them the most – they’re the ones that made me stronger.”

DeJesus disappeared from her Cleveland neighborhood in 2004 at age 14, just one year after 17-year-old Amanda Berry was abducted from the same area. She was last seen using a pay phone on her way home from school. The house where she was held captive with Berry and Michele Knight, another missing woman, was just two blocks on Seymour Ave. from DeJesus’ aunt’s home on the same street. The women were found by police after a neighbor helped Berry break free from the front door and call 911 Monday evening.

DeJesus, now 23, was reunited with her family Monday night, which never lost hope that Gina was still alive.

“Our family is very strong in our faith and never once doubted that we would be reunited with her alive,” Figaro told Metro Tuesday.

DeJesus, Berry, Berry’s 6-year-old daughter and Knight were all in good health.

“Everybody recognized her, and she recognized everyone,” Figaro said of DeJesus after seeing her for the first time in almost ten years.

“[Monday] evening, I was in such a state of disbelief,” Sheila Figaro, a cousin of Gina DeJesus, told Metro. “There were all those thoughts that race through one’s mind – is she right under your nose? Has she been taken to another country? But, you just never know. To find out she was blocks two away from her own family…

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  PHOTOS: The discovery of missing Cleveland girls 10 years later

52-year-old Ariel Castro and his brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were taken into custody Monday. They are expected to be charged Wednesday, police said. Investigators have found chains and ropes in the house believed to have been used to restrain the women.  No human remains have been found in the house, police said. There is no evidence yet that Castro was involved in other kidnappings.

Earlier Wednesday, Amanda Berry arrived with her 6-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, to her sister’s Cleveland home. Her sister, Beth Serrano, addressed a frenzied crowd of reporters, asking for privacy as their family tried to recover.

“We want to thank the public and media for their support over the years,” Serrano said. “Our family would request privacy so my sister, niece and I have time to recover. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statements.”

Follow Cassandra Garrison on Twitter: @CassieAtMetro

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A group of men violently attacked two victims near Madison Square Garden on Sunday night after shouting anti-gay remarks at them, police said.

The four suspects verbally harassed two men, 22 and 28, as they were walking southbound on Eighth Avenue near 34th Street at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Sunday. The suspects got closer to the victims and pushed them to the ground, cops said. The suspects punched one victim in the face, causing him to suffer a broken nose. The other victim had bruising on his right hand.

The victims were treated and released from Bellevue Hospital. Police released images of one of the suspects, described as a Hispanic male in his 20s, about 6 feet tall, with brown hair and a tattoo on his left forearm. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, white sneakers, a #7 Knicks Jersey and blue jeans.

The three other suspects are also described to be in their 20s.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn said today that she was “appalled” by the crime.

“Hateful assaults like these are an affront to everything our great city stands for, and I urge the perpetrators to turn themselves in immediately,” she said. “No one should have to fear being attacked on our streets because of who they are or who they love.”

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577.

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Three UMass Dartmouth students were charged Wednesday in connection with the deadly Boston Marathon bombings for allegedly hiding items from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s UMass Dartmouth dorm room and lying to federal authorities.

Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19 and of New Bedford, were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice by conspiring to destroy, conceal and cover up tangible objects belonging to Tsarnaev.

Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge, was charged with willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorims investigation.

The men will make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston at 3:30 p.m., according to the US Attorney’s office.

All three men and Tsarnaev started attending UMass Dartmouth at the same time, authorities said in court documents.

Authorities said Kadybayev and Tazhayakov concealed Tsarnaev’s laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks. They face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The fireworks friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly found and took from his dorm room days after the Boston Marathon bombings.
Credit: FBI

Phillipos faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Authorities, in a federal criminal complaint released Wednesday, said Kadybayev and Tazhayakov took fireworks, a backpack and a laptop computer from Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the bombings. The took the items after seeing pictures of Tsarnaev and his brother on thew news and after Kadybayev received a text message from Tsarnaev that said “I’m about to leave if you need something in my room take it,” authorities wrote in their complaint.

After seeing that Tsarnaev’s older brother was killed and there was a manhunt for the younger suspect in Watertown, the duo threw out the backpack and fireworks. When questioned by authorities, Phillipos, who also went to Tsarnaev’s dorm with the other two suspects, allegedly lied to authorities about taking the items.

At 11:38 a.m., about 30 minutes after making the initial announcement about the arrests, Boston Police tweeted, “Please be advised there is no threat to the public.”

“Please be advised that there is not threat to public safety. Three additional suspects have been taken into custody in connection to the attack on the Boston Marathon. Aside from the aforementioned, there is no additional info to release at this time. Additional details will be provided when they become available,” Boston Police said in a statement.

The 19-year-old Tsarnaev is in fair condition at a federal medical center in Fort Devens. He is charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction. His older brother and fellow suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed during a gunfight with police April 19.

Three people were killed and about 260 others were injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15.

Follow Metro Boston on Twitter: @MetroBOS

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Two young men accused of snatching gold chains off the necks of elderly women are on the loose in the Bronx.

Cops say two suspects, described as white males between 16 and 19 years of age, robbed four separate women in the past few weeks and attempted to rob a fifth victim. The victims were between 55 and 93 years old.

In each of the incidents, one or both of the suspects approaches the victim and grabs jewelry right from the victim’s neck and then flees the scene.

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  Thieves snatch chains from elderly victims

Police released surveillance video footage from a robbery that occurred on April 16 at about 2:30 in the afternoon. The 93-year-old victim is seen standing in her driveway when the suspect walks up to her, snatches two gold chains from her neck and then runs away.

The most recent incident occurred on April 29. The suspect approached a 61-year-old victim, asked her for directions and then snatched the woman’s gold chain. He may have fled in gray sedan, police said.

One of the thieves is described to be between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9 with short, dark-colored hair.

Anyone with information in regards to these incidents is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

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Police are searching for two men who robbed a crowded Bronx hair salon at gunpoint last week while a surveillance camera recorded the whole incident.

The robbers entered El Truco Hair Salon on Ogden Avenue in Highbridge at approximately 6 p.m. on April 21, cops said. One of the men displayed a black semi-automatic firearm and ordered everyone to the back of the store while the second suspect removed money and property from seven people and placed it in a red and black backpack.

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  Two men rob Bronx hair salon at gunpoint

The store’s owner told NBC News that there were children with their parents inside the salon at the time of the robbery, including an 18-month-old girl. One of the suspects pointed the gun at the girl because she was crying too much, the owner said.

The suspect carrying the gun is described as a black male, approximately 6-foot-2 and 180 lbs. He was last seen wearing a black hooded jacket, a black Yankees cap and black pants.

The suspect carrying the backpack is described as a black male approximately 5-foot-10, 170 lbs. and last seen wearing a black Adidas jacket, a brown hoodie and black Adidas pants.

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Cops are searching for four men wanted in connection with an assault and robbery in Bushwick last week.

The suspects approached a male victim in front of 379 Grove St. at approximately 3:30 a.m. on April 20, police said. They physically assaulted him and removed his property. The men fled eastbound on Grove Street and southbound on Wyckoff Street.

The four suspects are being described as Hispanic males. Police released images of the men taken from a surveillance video.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

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A 38-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and then robbed by two men in the Bowery neighborhood of Manhattan after she asked them for directions, police said.

The victim approached the suspects near Chrystie Street and Grand Street at approximately 9:30 p.m. on April 15, according to police. She asked the two men for directions, and the first suspect walked with her in the direction she needed to go.

The second suspect followed the two, grabbed the woman from behind and pinned her against the wall. The first suspect proceeded to punch her in the ribs and thigh. He then sexually assaulted her before removing her property and fleeing.

Police have released a sketch of the suspect accused of sexually assaulting the victim.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

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Authorities were investigating whether two ethnic Chechen brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon acted alone as they prepared to file charges against the surviving suspect.

Following a tense 24 hours for the Boston area, the manhunt ended Friday with 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cornered, captured and taken into custody.

Here is a timeline of events:

* Thursday, April 18, about 5:10 p.m.

- The FBI releases photographs and video of two men suspected of planting the pressure cooker bombs that killed three people and injured 176 at the Boston Marathon on Monday. Video footage shows a man known as suspect No. 1 wearing a dark baseball cap. He was later identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26.

Suspect No. 2, later identified as Tsarnaev’s brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was wearing a white cap backwards in the images. The 30-second videos are played repeatedly on national television, and photographs of the suspects are posted online.

* Thursday night at 9:04 p.m.

- Russian-language social networking site VK shows someone last logged out of what appears to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s page. The site had been accessed via mobile device.

* Thursday night around 10:20 p.m.

- Media cited authorities as saying the pair staged a robbery at a convenience store at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but state police said later they were not the ones who robbed the store.

* 10:30 p.m.

- Police discover MIT campus police officer Sean Collier, 26, shot multiple times in his car. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced dead. Collier was shot after an altercation on a Cambridge street corner, MIT said.

* Shortly after 10:30 p.m.

- Police say the two brothers hijack a car and abduct its owner for about a half hour, forcing him to withdraw money from an ATM before releasing him at a gas station where a security camera captures an image of someone who appears to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Police track the car’s movements using the captive owner’s cellphone, and say the two suspects tell him they bombed the marathon, the Watertown police chief told CNN.

Police track the car as it heads to the Boston suburb of Watertown.

* Friday, April 19, about 12:30 a.m.

Witnesses report hearing dozens of gunshots. More than 200 rounds were fired over about five to 10 minutes, Watertown police said. A transit police officer is hurt in the shootout.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev walks towards police, firing until he runs out of ammunition, according to the police chief’s account. He is tackled by police officers, who try to handcuff him in the street. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev drives toward the police officers, who scatter. The vehicle hits the older brother, dragging him a short way down the street.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev is transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and later pronounced dead.

* Before 1 a.m.

- A huge manhunt is launched for the second suspect and hundreds of police officers and FBI agents descend on Watertown.

* Between 3 and 4 a.m.

- Massachusetts police announce they will conduct a door-to-door search in Watertown. Citizens are warned to stay indoors.

* Around 5:30 a.m.

- Train service in Boston is suspended.

- By 6 a.m., a heavy contingent of police reinforcements arrives in Watertown. At sunrise, they begin multiple sweeps through the streets. State police wear fatigues and carry side-arms and semi-automatic rifles. Some teams are accompanied by black armored trucks as they fan across neighborhoods.

* 8 a.m.

- Massachusetts officials announce they have expanded the shelter-in-place recommendations for the entire city of Boston, effectively putting the city in lockdown as they search for Tsarnaev.

* 10:30 a.m.

- Police say they have located a gray Honda with Massachusetts license plates in the Boston area that they believe had been occupied by a bombing suspect.

* Shortly after 10:45 a.m.

- Top security and counterterrorism advisers finish an hour-long briefing with President Barack Obama in the White House Situation Room on developments in the Boston manhunt.

* Throughout the day

- The search goes on, including the help of Black Hawk helicopters. The manhunt covers 60 percent to 70 percent of the search area by afternoon, Massachusetts State Police Colonel Timothy Alben says.

* 6 p.m.

Police lift the stay-indoors request for the Boston area. Mass transit reopens. Suspect remains at large.

* About 7 p.m.

Gunfire erupts in Watertown and police converge on a house where the suspect is believed to be hiding, about half a mile from the scene of the shootout. Police had been tipped off by a resident who believed someone was hiding in a boat in the house’s back yard.

* About 8:45 p.m.

Boston police say they captured the suspect alive and he is in custody.

* 9:45 p.m.

The suspect is in serious condition at a hospital, police say. He was found covered in blood, hiding in a boat in a part of Watertown that had been slightly outside the police search perimeter throughout the day, law enforcement officials say at a press conference.

* About 10 p.m.

President Barack Obama praises Boston law enforcement officers, says he has instructed the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. intelligence community to help with the ongoing investigation.

Compiled based on Reuters reporting, official statements from law enforcement and media reports. All times Eastern Daylight Time.

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With the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings lying seriously wounded in a hospital, investigators worked on Saturday to determine a motive and whether the ethnic Chechen brothers accused in the attack acted alone.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was captured late on Friday after a gunfight with police that ended a daylong manhunt and sent waves of relief and jubilation throughout Boston. His brother Tamerlan, 26, was killed on Thursday in a shootout with police.

Tsarnaev was being treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said spokeswoman Kelly Lawman, who said the FBI would provide updates on his condition.

It was not clear when he would be charged.

The brothers are suspected of setting off bombs made in pressure cookers and packed with ball bearings and nails at the crowded finish line of the marathon, killing three people and injuring 176.

After Monday’s deadly bombings and the manhunt that shut down the Boston metropolitan area for most of Friday, life on Saturday regained some sense of normalcy.

Boston’s Red Sox baseball team returned to Fenway Park for the first time since the bombings, paying an emotional tribute to the victims and the first responders before the game against the Kansas City Royals.

Tsarnaev had been hiding in a boat parked in the backyard of a house in the suburb of Watertown, police said. A resident called police after spotting blood on the boat. Police said he was bleeding and in serious condition when admitted to the hospital.

President Barack Obama said after the capture that questions remained from the bombings, including whether the two suspects received any help.

Early indications are that the brothers acted alone, Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau told CNN on Saturday.

“From what I know right now, these two acted together and alone,” he said. “But as far as this little cell or this little group, I think we got our guys.”

Monday’s bombing at the world-famous marathon was described by Obama as an act of terrorism.

On Saturday, several Republican lawmakers called on the Obama administration to try Tsarnaev as an “enemy combatant” under terms of war, without entitlement to Miranda rights or appointment of counsel.

“The accused perpetrators of these acts were not common criminals attempting to profit from a criminal enterprise, but terrorists trying to injure, maim, and kill innocent Americans,” Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Representative Peter King of New York said in a statement.

Authorities did not read the teenager the Miranda warning usually given by police to criminal suspects before they are interrogated so statements can be admissible in court.

A Justice Department official said the government is invoking the public safety exception to Miranda to question the suspect extensively about other potential explosive devices or accomplices and to gain critical intelligence.

The Republicans lawmakers praised that decision and also said they were encouraged that a so-called high-value detainee interrogation team was involved in the investigation.

The group was created by the Obama administration after the president ordered the shutdown of a CIA program in which militant suspects were held in a network of secret prisons during the administration of President George W. Bush.

FBI INTERVIEWED SUSPECT IN 2011

The brothers had not been under surveillance as possible militants, U.S. government officials said. But the FBI said on Friday that it interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 at the request of a foreign government, which it did not identify.

A law enforcement source said that country was Russia.

“The request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups,” the FBI statement said.

The matter was closed when the FBI “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign.”

The FBI statement was the first evidence that the family had come to security officials’ attention after they emigrated to the United States about a decade ago.

Tamerlan was charged in July 2009 with domestic assault and battery of his girlfriend, but was not convicted, said a spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.

The brothers spent their early years in a small community of Chechens in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million. The family moved in 2001 to Dagestan, a southern Russian province that lies at the heart of a violent Islamist insurgency and where their parents now live.

In separate interviews, the parents of the Tsarnaev brothers said they believed their sons were incapable of carrying out the bombings. Others remembered the brothers as friendly and respectful youths who never stood out or caused alarm.

“Somebody clearly framed them. I don’t know who exactly framed them, but they did. They framed them. And they were so cowardly that they shot the boy dead,” father Anzor Tsarnaev said in an interview with Reuters in Dagestan’s provincial capital, Makhachkala, clasping his head in despair.

The mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, told Russia Today state television: “It’s impossible, impossible, for both of them to do such things, so I am really, really, really telling that this is a setup.”

But Ruslan Tsarni, who said he was an uncle of the brothers, told CNN on Saturday that he first noticed a change in Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s religious views in 2009. He said the radicalization of his nephew happened “in the streets of Cambridge.”

BOSTON LOCKED DOWN IN MANHUNT

The Russian-installed leader of Chechnya criticized police in Boston for killing an ethnic Chechen and blamed the violence on his upbringing in the United States.

The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, the biggest mosque in the area, said in a statement that it was shutting its doors until further notice.

The bombings prompted contact between the United States and Russia on terrorism and the Kremlin said on Saturday that the presidents of both had agreed by telephone to increase cooperation on counter-terrorism.

After combing through a mass of pictures and video from the site in the minutes before the Boston marathon bombing, the FBI publicized pictures of the two men on Thursday and asked the public for help in identifying them.

Just hours later, events began to unfold with the fatal shooting of a police officer on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and finally the Watertown firefight, during which police say the brothers threw bombs at officers. Tamerlan suffered fatal wounds, while Dzhokhar escaped on foot.

The hunt for Tsarnaev emptied Boston’s streets as the city went into lockdown for most of Friday. Public transportation was suspended and air space restricted. Famous universities, including Harvard and MIT, closed after police told residents to remain at home.

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One trail in the search for clues about why two ethnic Chechen brothers may have carried out the Boston Marathon bombings leads to a sleepy town in Kyrgyzstan where former neighbors recall a quiet family that was never in trouble.

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  VIDEO: Boston celebrates capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are remembered as decent and obedient boys from their time in the 1990s in the small community of Chechens in Tokmok, a leafy town under the snow-capped Tien Shan mountains outside the capital Bishkek.

Tamerlan, the elder of the two, studied well. His father, Anzor, made a living selling used cars and was welcomed with open arms when he visited the town again two years ago, 10 years after the family left for Russia and then the United States.

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  PHOTOS: Boston residents celebrate capture of second suspect

The news that Tamerlan had been shot dead by police and Dzhokhar captured after a day-long manhunt on suspicion of carrying out Monday’s bombing, in which three people were killed, was greeted with shock and disbelief.

“The Tsarnaevs were such a good family. They yearned to be well-educated. None of them were rowdy. It was a very cultured family,” said former neighbor Raisa Kaayeva, a middle-aged housewife who is also an ethnic Chechen.

“I feel it with my heart – these boys were framed. Why did they go to this America? They should have stayed in Russia to lead a quiet life. Now they have been made scapegoats. I pity these boys. I was weeping when I saw it on TV – their lives were broken, as well as the lives of their mother and father.”

Badrudi Tsokayev, a friend of the father, waved his hands repeatedly as he described his shock at hearing the news. Like others who recalled the family, he saw no signs of radicalism.

“I wouldn’t imagine seeing this even in a nightmare,” Tsokayev, 60, said on a quiet street in Tokmok, 60 km (38 miles) from Bishkek. “As a child, Tamerlan was such a quiet boy. Today everyone is calling me with just one question – is this true?”

He said Anzor Tsarnaev had been fiercely proud of Tamerlan’s prowess in the boxing ring and said his son had been looking forward to going to the Russian city of Sochi to watch the 2014 Winter Olympics next February.

CHECHEN DIASPORA

It is in this town of 53,000 that the boys would have become aware of their Chechen roots. Dzhokhar, now 19, years later posted links to Islamic websites and others calling for Chechen independence on what appears to be his page on a Russian language social networking site.

They would have learnt about the difficult fate suffered by their predecessors in Soviet times that has fostered a sense of injustice among some Chechens and helped fuel an independence drive in the Chechnya region of Russia’s North Caucasus that led to two wars with Moscow in the 1990s.

Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million which hosts U.S. and Russian military air bases, had a huge influx of ethnic Chechens in 1944.

Hundreds of thousands of Chechens and ethnically close Ingush were evicted from their homes in the North Caucasus and moved to Central Asia in cattle wagons after being accused by dictator Josef Stalin of collaborating with Nazi Germany.

About 99,000 of the Chechens and Ingush ended up in what was then the Kyrgyz Soviet republic.

In Tokmok, the Tsarnaev clan alone inhabited a whole street before most of them moved back to their native village of Chiri-Yurt in Chechnya in the 1960s, residents said. About 20 Chechen families still live in a district popularly known as the Glass Factory, after the building that dominates it.

SCHOOL REGISTRY

The brothers would have become more familiar with Islamist militancy when they moved in 2001 to Dagestan, the southern Russian province which lies at the heart of an Islamist insurgency and sees daily violence, and where their parents still live.

In Tokmok, they lived in a modest brick house before moving to a more spacious, two-story house opposite School No. 1 in the town center, where Tamerlan and his two sisters studied.

A school register shows Tamerlan’s date of birth – October 21, 1986 – and the date when he entered the fifth grade, January 18, 1999. He studied here for a year.

Dzhokhar, born in 1993, was too young to go to school at the time.

“Yes, the Tsarnaevs studied here. I wouldn’t say they were anti-social or anything like that. No, I can’t say so,” said school headmistress Lyubov Shulzhenko.

“The Chechen community here is so closely-knit and decent. We have never had problems with their children,” said Natalia Ryabovol, a physics teacher.

In the Soviet era, Tokmok hosted a busy base which trained military pilots for pro-Soviet countries stretching from eastern Europe to Africa. A Soviet-made jet fighter is perched on a pedestal at the town’s entrance.

Many of the townspeople today make a living by growing fruit and vegetables and tending cattle. The attack in Boston seems part of another world.

Kyrgyzstan, which borders China, is politically fragile after the toppling of two presidents since 2005. It says it cannot be held responsible for the brothers’ actions.

“Taking into account the fact that the suspects left the republic when they were eight and 15 years old, the State Committee for National Security considers it inappropriate to link them to Kyrgyzstan,” the Kyrgyz security service said.

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Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told the English-language Russia Today television station in a phone interview, a recording of which was obtained by Reuters, that she believed her sons were innocent and had been framed.  

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  VIDEO: Boston celebrates capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar was captured after a day-long manhunt.

“He (Tamerlan) was controlled by the FBI, like, for three to five years,” she said, speaking in English and using the direct English translation of a word in Russian that means monitored.

“They knew what my son was doing, they knew what sites on the Internet he was going to,” she said in what Russia Today described as a call from Makhachkala, the city where she lives in Russia’s Dagestan region.

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  PHOTOS: Boston residents celebrate capture of second suspect

Tsarnaeva echoed the boys’ father, Anzor, who said on Friday that he believed they had been framed.

“It is really, really a hard thing to hear. And being a mother, what I can say is that I am really sure, I am, like, 100 percent sure, that this is a set-up,” she said.

U.S. government officials have said the brothers were not under surveillance as possible militants. But the FBI said in a statement on Friday that in 2011 it interviewed Tamerlan at the request of a foreign government, which it did not identify.

It said the matter was closed because interviews with Tamerlan and family members “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign”.

The FBI statement was the first evidence that the family had come to security officials’ attention after they emigrated to the United States from Dagestan about a decade ago.

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A 19-year-old suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings with his older brother was captured by police after a day-long manhunt on Friday that closed down the city and turned a working-class suburb into a virtual military zone.

The capture sent waves of relief and jubilation through Boston and the suburb of Watertown, where armored vehicles roamed the streets and helicopters flew overhead through the day. Residents and police officers cheered and clapped when the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was taken alive after a gunfight.

Bleeding and in serious condition, he was admitted to a Boston hospital, a Massachusetts State Police spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Kelly Lawman, confirmed on Saturday that Tsarnaev was being treated there, but declined comment on his condition. The FBI would be providing any updates, she said.

It was not yet clear when he would face initial charges.

Tsarnaev had been hiding in the stern of a boat parked in the backyard of a house in Watertown, police said. A resident called police after spotting blood on the boat.

President Barack Obama told reporters at the White House after the suspect’s capture that questions remained from the bombings, including whether the two suspects received any help.

Monday’s bombing, described by Obama as an act of terrorism, was the worst such attack on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001, and rattled nerves across the United States.

The brothers, ethnic Chechens who once lived in Russia, are suspected of setting off bombs made in pressure cookers and packed with ball bearings and nails at the crowded finish line of Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 176.

The family of Martin Richard, an 8-year-old boy killed in the blast, welcomed the arrest.

“Tonight, our community is once again safe from these two men,” the family said in a statement.

The older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed on Thursday night in a shootout with police less than a mile from where Friday night’s capture took place.

After combing through a mass of pictures and video from the site in the minutes before the bombing, the FBI had publicized pictures of the two men on Thursday and asked the public for help in identifying them.

Just hours later, events began to unfold fast with the fatal shooting of a police officer on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and finally the Watertown firefight, during which police say the brothers threw bombs at officers. Tamerlan suffered fatal wounds, while Dzhokhar escaped on foot.

The brothers had not been under surveillance as possible militants, U.S. government officials said. But the FBI said in a statement on Friday that in 2011 it interviewed Tamerlan at the request of a foreign government, which it did not identify.

“The request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups,” the FBI statement said.

The matter was closed because interviews with Tamerlan and family members “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign”.

The FBI statement was the first evidence that the family had come to security officials’ attention after they emigrated to the United States about a decade ago. It might raise questions about whether authorities missed potential warning signs.

At the same time that police were pursuing Dzhokhar on Friday night, police in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 60 miles south of Boston said three other people had been taken into custody for questioning about Monday’s bombings. They were later released, police said.

Authorities said the investigation into the bombings was still open.

They were asked at a news conference on Friday night why authorities did not immediately read the suspect a warning usually given by police to criminal suspects in custody before they are interrogated so statements can be admissible in court.

Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said there was “a public safety exception” that was applied to Tsarnaev regarding the warning known as Miranda rights.

The hunt for Tsarnaev emptied Boston’s streets as the city went into lockdown for most of Friday. Public transportation was suspended and air space restricted. Famous universities, including Harvard and MIT, closed after police told residents to remain at home.

The hunt focused on Watertown, where police officers went door-to-door and searched houses. Two Black Hawk helicopters circled the area. SWAT teams moved through in formation.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick lifted the “stay-in-place” order for Boston late on Friday afternoon.

Police were alerted to Tsarnaev’s whereabouts by a Watertown resident who went outside after the order was lifted.

He saw blood on a boat in the backyard, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. He then lifted up the tarp covering the boat and “saw a man covered with blood”, Davis said.

Police moved in. “There was an exchange of gunfire, and I don’t know if he was struck,” Davis said of the suspect.

Authorities, using a bullhorn, had called on the suspect to surrender but he refused to give himself up.

“We used a robot to pull the tarp off the boat,” David Procopio of the Massachusetts State Police said. “We were also watching him with a thermal imaging camera in our helicopter. He was weakened by blood loss – injured last night most likely.”

Tsarnaev was taken into custody after authorities rushed the boat, Davis said.

‘PUT A SHAME ON OUR FAMILY’

Some details emerged on Friday about the brothers, including their origins in the predominantly Muslim regions of Russia’s Caucasus, which have experienced two decades of violence since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The younger brother described himself on a social network as from a minority in a region that includes Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia.

A man who told reporters he was an uncle of the brothers said they came to the United States in the early 2000s and settled in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, area.

Ruslan Tsarni, who lives in suburban Washington and has not spoken to the brothers since 2009, said the bombings “put a shame on our family. It put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity”.

In separate interviews, the parents of the Tsarnaev brothers said they believed their sons were incapable of carrying out the bombings. Others remembered the brothers as friendly and respectful youths who never stood out or caused alarm.

“Somebody clearly framed them. I don’t know who exactly framed them, but they did. They framed them. And they were so cowardly that they shot the boy dead,” father Anzor Tsarnaev said in an interview with Reuters in Dagestan’s provincial capital, Makhachkala, clasping his head in despair.

The FBI said the two blasts at the marathon were caused by bombs in pressure cookers and carried in backpacks that were left near the finish line as thousands of spectators gathered.

The mother, Zubeidat Tsaraeva, speaking in English, told CNN, “It’s impossible, impossible, for both of them to do such things, so I am really, really, really telling that this is a setup.”

The Russian-installed leader of Chechnya criticized police in Boston for killing an ethnic Chechen and blamed the violence on his upbringing in the United States.

The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, the biggest mosque in the area, said in a statement that it was shutting its doors until further notice.

The bombings prompted contact between the United States and Russia on terrorism and the Kremlin said on Saturday that the presidents of both had agreed by telephone to increase cooperation on counter-terrorism.

The post Boston marathon bombing suspect caught after manhunt appeared first on Metro.us.

President Barack Obama pledged on Friday that the United States will find out whether the two ethnic Chechen brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings received help, and he pleaded for Americans not to rush to judgment.

Obama appeared in the White House briefing room after police arrested the lone surviving suspect in the Boston suburb of Watertown, ending a dramatic manhunt. The other suspect was killed in a shootout overnight with police.

The U.S. leader watched the fast-paced developments on television in the White House residence, then returned to the Oval Office where he was briefed by FBI Director Robert Mueller. Relief swept the White House at the news of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s arrest but there was no sign of a celebration.

“Obviously tonight there are still many unanswered questions. Among them: why did young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and country resort to such violence? How did they plan and carry out these attacks, and did they receive any help?” Obama said.

The successful conclusion of the manhunt allowed Obama to tout a major law enforcement achievement in response to the worst attack on U.S. soil since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Questions remain, however, over the FBI’s disclosure on Friday that it had interviewed one of the suspects in 2011 and found no evidence that he posed a security risk.

The president, looking somber and gripping the podium, said Americans are in debt to the people of Boston and Massachusetts for their resilience in responding to the twin blasts that killed three people and injured 176 others on Monday and enduring a wrenching week.

“We will determine what happened. We will investigate any association that these terrorists may have had and will continue to do whatever we have to do to keep our people safe,” Obama said.

In urging Americans to show tolerance, Obama may have been referring to the surviving suspect who is known to have posted links to Islamic websites calling for Chechen independence.

Obama appealed for Americans to avoid a rush to judgment, saying people should stay true to the “unity and diversity that makes us strong.”

“That’s why we have courts. That’s why we take care not to rush to judgment, not about the motivations of these individuals, certainly not about entire groups of people … We welcome people from all around the world, people of every faith, every ethnicity,” he said.

Obama spoke earlier in the day with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Boston bombings and the White House said he praised U.S.-Russian counter-terrorism cooperation including after Monday’s attack.

The end of the Boston manhunt capped an emotional and difficult week for Obama.

His legislation to tighten background checks on gun buyers, a response to the December massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school in Connecticut, went down in a bitter defeat in the U.S. Senate, prompting Obama to angrily denounce it as a “shameful day” in Washington.

And with the nation already on edge, authorities intercepted letters laced with ricin, a highly lethal poison, that were sent to Obama and Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker. Authorities have arrested a Mississippi man in the case.

Obama also attended a wrenching inter-faith service for the victims of the bombings in Boston on Thursday.

“All in all, this has been a tough week,” he said. “But we’ve seen the character of our country once more.”

The post Obama says U.S. to Investigate if Boston bombings suspects had help appeared first on Metro.us.

State and Federal authorities revealed new details about the events leading up to the capture of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, the second suspect wanted for Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings.

Boston Police Commisioner Ed Davis confirmed that a homeowner in Watertown called police after spotting a trail of blood in his yard, and then lifting a tarp and spotting the suspect in a boat in storage in the yard.

Davis said Tsarnaev did not have explosives on him at the time of his arrest but that based on events leading up to the arrest, authorities proceeded under the belief that he did.

Davis said more than 2,000 rounds were fired and the suspects threw improvised explosive devices and homemade hand grenades at police during a shootout Thursday night.

“This is the stuff that’s almost unheard of,” Davis said.

Other officials weighed in on the intense investigation that took place over the past four days.

“We’re exhausted folks, but we have victory here tonight,” said Colonel Timothy Alben of the Massachusetts State Police. “But let’s not forget those people along the way.”

Mayor Thomas Menino said “the people of Greater Boston will be able to sleep tonight.”

Gov. Deval Patrick echoed Menino in saying that Boston can now “rest easy.”

Crows applaude the law enforcement officials after the suspect was taken into custody.
Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/Metro

President Barack Obama addressed the nation following the attack, crediting the people of Boston for helping to capture the suspects.

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  PHOTOS: Boston residents celebrate capture of second suspect

“Our nation is in debt to the people of Boston,” he said.  “Bostonians responded with resolve and determination. The Boston Police Department and state and local police responded with professionalism and bravery over five long days.”

Obama promised the nation would get answers to the many questions associated with the bombings.

“Obviously tonight there are still many unanswered questions, among them why did a young man who grew up and studied here  …  resort to such violence,” he said. “The family of those killed deserve answers, the wouned,  some who have to  learn how to stand up and walk again, deserve answers.”

Obama also recognized the roller coaster ride that the City of Boston has undergone in the past five days.

“All in all this has been a tough week but we’ve seen the character of our country once more.”

The post New details emerge in Marathon bomb suspect’s capture appeared first on Metro.us.

Communities around Boston were put on lockdown Friday morning as authorities searched for one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. 

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  PHOTOS: Law enforcement searches for bombing suspects

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the man the FBI labeled “Suspect 1″ in the investigation, was killed by law enforcement officers during a shootout overnight, according Reuters.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, designated as “Suspect 2,” is still on the run and remains a serious threat. The two suspects were reportedly brothers from Chechnya.

Reuters was providing a live Twitter feed of developments in the case, as was Metro Boston.

Around 10:20 Thursday night, an MIT police officer was shot and killed on campus, the Middlesex County District Attorney said in a statement. An MBTA officer was critically hurt.

A short time later, police received reports of a carjacking by two men who kept their victim inside the car for about half an hour, the statement said.

Police pursued that car to Watertown, where explosives were thrown from the car at police and gunfire was exchanged, the statement said.

“During the exchange of the gunfire, we believe that one of the suspects was struck and ultimately taken into custody. A second suspect was able to flee from that car and there is an active search going on at this point in time,” Col. Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, told a news conference.

The first suspect died at Beth Israel Hospital. Doctors said he had gunshot wounds and “blast injuries.”

Officials urged people who live in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge and the Alston/Brighton neighborhoods of Boston to stay inside.

In Watertown, SWAT teams were conducting a door-to-door search. No vehicles were being allowed in or out of the community.

All MBTA service was shut down until further notice. Boston Public Schools and colleges were also closed for the day.

The post UPDATE: Brothers from Chechnya ID’d as Marathon bombing suspects; 1 dead after police shootout, other on the run appeared first on Metro.us.

FBI releases images of Boston bombing suspects.

The post PHOTOS: FBI releases images of Boston bombing suspects appeared first on Metro.us.

Cops are searching for two men who are wanted for three recent robberies and one attempted robbery in Brooklyn and Queens.

In each of the incidents, the suspects enter the location, display firearms and demand cash. They have targeted two Caribbean Air Mail stores and a variety store in Canarsie.

The most recent incident occurred March 15 at Caribbean Vision located at 218-83 Hempstead Ave. in Queens Village. The suspects entered the store, displayed firearms and demanded cash. They fled without money.

Both suspects are described as black males in their 20s.

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

The post String of Brooklyn, Queens robberies spurs manhunt appeared first on Metro.us.

Police have arrested a 19-year-old Brooklyn resident in connection with a group of people who trashed and looted a Rite Aid store following a vigil on Monday held for a teen who was shot by police officers.

Kaven Menard, 19, has been charged with robbery, NY1 reported. Police are searching for more suspects via a surveillance video from inside the store.

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  Vigil for 16-year-old killed by cops turns to riot in East Flatbush

A vigil held for 16-year-old Kimani Gray Monday night turned into a violent riot in East Flatbush as those who are angry over the teen’s death broke car windows and ransacked local shops. Gray was shot and killed by two police officers after he pointed a gun at them on Saturday night.

One witness has come out and said she does not believe Gray had a gun, even though a gun was recovered at the scene.

Many young people in the neighborhood are upset over his death, while other residents are concerned about the riot and unrest in their area.

The post Arrest made in East Flatbush Rite Aid attack appeared first on Metro.us.

Two men fired shots at a 22-year-old victim and attempted to rob him inside a 7-Eleven in the Bronx Monday morning.

The armed suspects entered the convenience store located at 1754 University Avenue in Morris Heights at approximately 7 a.m. They demanded money from the male victim and fired their weapons four times.

The suspects may have been chasing the victim, the New York Post reported. An employee of the store herded customers to a back room, saving them from the gunfire, sources told the Post.

No injuries were reported and the suspects fled without any money or property. The investigation is ongoing.

The suspects are described as being Hispanic and in their 20s. One was wearing grey sweatpants and a black jacket. The other has a beard and a ponytail and was wearing a black jacket and blue jeans.

The post Two men fire shots during attempted robbery inside 7-Eleven appeared first on Metro.us.

Police are searching for the occupants of three separate vehicles spotted near the location where cops discovered two dead bodies in a fire in Howard Beach early Wednesday.

Upon putting out a fire in a grassy area near 159th Avenue and 78th Street, responders discovered the burned bodies of Rudy Superville, 22, and Gary Lopez, 25, both of Brooklyn.

The individuals inside a two-toned dark-colored custom van, a light-colored sedan and a dark-colored sedan are being sought for questioning in the investigation. Images of the vehicles were obtained near 157th Avenue and 83rd Street.

The post Police search for possible suspects seen near Howard Beach fire appeared first on Metro.us.

Police are searching for three men who robbed an elderly man at gunpoint in Queens this past weekend.

The suspects entered a commercial location near the corner of 24th Street and 35th Avenue in Astoria at approximately 1:15 p.m. on Saturday carrying cardboard boxes, police said. Once they were let inside, one of the robbers displayed a firearm and the suspects demanded money from the 78-year-old victim. The victim complied and the men fled with an unknown amount of money.

Two of the suspects are described as black males in the 20s. The suspect who held the gun is described as a Hispanic male in his 20s. They were all wearing a hoodie and a jacket.

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

The post Suspects sought in gunpoint robbery of elderly man appeared first on Metro.us.

Police are searching for three suspects in 12 separate thefts that occurred between August and February in Queens.

In most of the incidents, one of the suspects tells the victim that he or she has a flat tire. When the victim goes to investigate the flat tire, the suspects remove property from inside the car. In many instances, the victim was leaving a bank when they were targeted by the suspects.

The robberies have occurred in various neighborhoods in Queens, including Flushing, Broad Channel, South Richmond Hill, Queens Village and Sunnyside. All of the incidents have occurred during the day.

The most recent incident occurred on Feb. 28 in a parking lot on Northern Boulevard. One of the suspects approached the victim and told him he had a flat tire while another suspect sprayed something on the victim’s jacket. The first suspect convinced the victim to take his jacket off and put it on the car. While the victim was distracted, the second suspect removed the jacket from the car.

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

The post Thieves wanted for using flat tire scheme to rob Queens drivers appeared first on Metro.us.

Police are searching for two women who robbed a 29-year-old man in Sunset Park, Brooklyn after telling him they were cops.

The suspects approached the victim near 53rd Street and Fourth Avenue a little after 1 a.m. on Jan. 8. They first demanded his property and offered him sex. After the victim declined and walked away, the women followed him and told him they were police officers. One of the suspects then pushed him to the ground, held her foot on his neck and removed money from his wallet.

The women fled in a black Jeep Cherokee. They are described as being Hispanic, approximately between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 7 inches tall.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

The post Two female cop impersonators wanted for robbery appeared first on Metro.us.