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Carjacking Victim Told Boston Bomb Suspects, "Chinese Are Very Friendly To Muslims!"
By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 26, 2013
Modified Apr 26, 2013
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Boston Regional Intelligence Center
By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 26, 2013
Modified Apr 26, 2013
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Surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved to a federal medical detention center in central Massachusetts. The news comes as more details about Tsarnaev's and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Wednesday night violent crime spree came to light.
The 19-year-old had been recovering at a a Boston hospital since his capture last Friday. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a police shootout earlier that morning, after he and his brother allegedly killed an MIT security guard and then carjacked a man driving a Mercedes Benz SUV. The carjacking victim, a 26-year-old entrepreneur from China now living in Boston, spoke to the Boston Globe about his time with the brothers—Tamerlan Tsarnaev allegedly said of the fatal bombings, "I did that. And I just killed a policeman in Cambridge."
The victim, who only wanted to be known as Danny ("I don’t want to be a famous person talking on the TV... I don’t feel like a hero. ... I was trying to save myself") says that a man approached his window, knocking on it. Danny opened the window and then he saw a gun. It was Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
“Don’t look at me!” Tamerlan shouted at one point. “Do you remember my face?”
“No, no, I don’t remember anything,” he said. Tamerlan laughed. “It’s like white guys, they look at black guys and think all black guys look the same,” he said. “And maybe you think all white guys look the same.”
“Exactly,” Danny said, though he thought nothing of the sort. It was one of many moments in their mental chess match, Danny playing up his outsider status in America and playing down his wealth -- he claimed the car was older than it was, and he understated his lease payments -- in a desperate hope of extending his life.
Danny had come to the US in 2009 for a master’s degree, graduated in January 2012, and returned to China to await a work visa. He came back two months ago, leasing a Mercedes and moving into a high-rise with two Chinese friends while diving into a startup. But he told Tamerlan he was still a student, and that he had been here barely a year. It seemed to help that Tamerlan had trouble understanding even Danny’s pronunciation of the word “China.”
“Oh, that’s why your English is not very good,” the brother replied, finally figuring it out. “OK, you’re Chinese ... I’m a Muslim.”
“Chinese are very friendly to Muslims!” Danny said. “We are so friendly to Muslims.”
At one point, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev met up with them (he had been following in another car), moving "heavy" objects from the other car to the SUV. They stopped at a Bank of America ATM, so the younger brother could use Danny's ATM to withdraw money. The brothers "openly discussed driving to New York, though Danny could not make out if they were planning another attack... He overheard them speak in a foreign language—'Manhattan' the only intelligible word to him—and then ask in English if Danny’s car could be driven out of state. 'What do you mean?' Danny said, confused. 'Like New York,' one of the brothers said." (NYC officials say they were indeed planning to come to NYC.)
Finally, when the brothers stopped at another gas station, Danny made a break for it, "I was thinking I must do two things: unfasten my seatbelt and open the door and jump out as quick as I can. If I didn’t make it, he would kill me right out, he would kill me right away,” Danny said. “I just did it. I did it very fast, using my left hand and right hand simultaneously to open the door, unfasten my seatbelt, jump out...and go."
He ran to a Mobil station—Tamerlan failed to grab him in time and didn't follow him—where a cashier first thought he was drunk, because Danny was yelling, "Some men are trying to shoot me. They have a bomb and guns," and falling over. The cashier, Tarek Ahmed, hid him and then called 911. Danny told the authorities they'd be able to find the brothers via the SUV's GPS and his iPhone.
Danny told the Boston Globe he had been thinking, "Death is so close to me... I don’t want to die. I have a lot of dreams that haven’t come true yet." The Tsarnaevs' parents, who question whether their sons are involved in the bombings, are planning Tamerlan Tsarnaev's burial.
Tagged
boston bombing
boston marathon
carjacking victim
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
tamerlan tsarnaev
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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