The Boston Police Department (BPD) announced on Wednesday that it had taken three “suspects” into custody, but added that there was “no threat to the public,” and details about the arrests would follow.
Unconfirmed media reports quoting law enforcement officials said that the suspects were likely to be students at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, which April 15 bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev (19) attended.
CNN said that officials told the news channel that at least two of the three additional suspects arrested “face obstruction of justice charges.” CBS news said that additional charges they may face could include conspiracy and making false statements.
ADVERTISEMENT
NBC's Pete Williams reported that the suspects had been under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for more than a week, adding “The question is whether they helped to take things out of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room after the bombing.”
The second suspect and older Tsarnaev brother, Tamerlan (26) was killed during a shootout with police near the Watertown suburb of Boston, after eluding capture at the scene of the crime and then taking a man hostage after car-jacking him.
Reports on Wednesday described the suspects as Dzokhar's “friends” and said that they were arrested for “harbouring or aiding the Tsarnaev brothers after the bombing.” The BPD said that it did not have any further details to release at the time and no press conference had been scheduled yet.
ADVERTISEMENT
Using Twitter to make the announcement, as indeed it did during the massive manhunt to capture the Tsarnaev brothers the BPD tweeted at about noon, local time, on Wednesday: “Three additional suspects taken into custody in Marathon bombing case. Details to follow.”