Federal prosecutors in Boston announced today that a federal grand jury has indicted Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on charges of using weapons of mass destruction. It is just one of 30 counts he will be charged with.
According to CBS News, the prosecutors made the announcement just before a press conference set for 3 p.m. Thursday. He will also be charged in the killing of four people.
Boston.com reports that the indictment says that Tsarnaev allegedly wrote a confession that he left in the boat he was found in after a shootout with police in Watertown days after the bombing. The indictment also alleges that Tsarnaev was inspired by Al Qaeda literature.
“I don’t like killing innocent people,” but “The US Government is killing our innocent civilians. I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished. We Muslims are one body, you hurt one, you hurt us all,” he allegedly wrote in the note. “Stop killing our innocent people, we will stop.”
The bombings at the Boston Marathon on April 15 killed three people and injured at least 260. Tsarnaev allegedly worked with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed during the police shootout on April 19. That morning, they allegedly killed MIT police officer Sean Collier.
The Associated Press notes that the brothers allegedly used pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel. The two bombs went off near the finish line of the marathon.
Prosecutors said that many of the charges could bring the death penalty or life in prison.