Crime & Safety

Boston Marathon Suspect Involved in Arlington Incident Last Summer

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had a run in with Arlington police last Fourth of July.

The Boston Marathon suspect currently hospitalized and in police custody was involved in an incident last Fourth of July on Paul Revere Road in Arlington, according to a police release.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who has been charged in connection with last week’s bombing, appears to have been one of three males who was approached by police for drinking in a parked car in a “No Parking Zone.”

Arlington Police Capt. Richard Flynn would neither confirm nor deny Tuesday that this was the specific incident referenced in the release. However, the incident is the only one from the July Fourth log that fits the description.

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Police responded to Paul Revere Road at about 7:25 p.m. that evening for a report of a small group of males drinking alcohol in their vehicle. The vehicle in question was a 1999 Honda Civic, which is the same make and model of one of the two vehicles Tsarnaev used in Friday’s shootout in Watertown.

Police found three males in the vehicle and two Busch Light cans behind it, according to the police report. The males allegedly told police that they were heading to a barbecue and had been parked there for about two hours. Two of the males denied drinking any alcohol, while the third said that he had been drinking in the vehicle, according to the report. The third male also had a cup of beer between his knees, police said.

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It is unknown which one of the males was Tsarnaev at this time. The third male received a $500 fine for drinking alcohol in a motor vehicle, and the driver got a parking ticket.

After Tsarnaev was named as a suspect early Friday morning, Arlington police responded to Paul Revere Road to make sure that he was not there, according to the release. Arlington police have turned over all of the information from the incident to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Tsarnaev allegedly carried out the attack with his older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in Friday’s shootout. Tsarnaev was captured Friday afternoon hiding in a boat behind a Watertown home.

In addition to the bombing, the brothers allegedly shot and killed Sean Collier, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, Thursday night and injured another officer during the shootout. Monday’s attack killed three people, including 29-year-old Arlington resident Krystle Campbell, and injured more than 200 others.


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