The Boston Marathon bombing suspects made an impromptu decision to drive to New York City and detonate their remaining explosives in Times Square, New York City officials said on Thursday.
“Last night, we were informed by the FBI that the surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at an afternoon news conference.
Bloomberg was referring to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was captured on Friday in suburban Watertown, Mass., after an intense manhunt by authorities. His brother, Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a fierce overnight shootout with police earlier on Friday.
“He told the FBI apparently that he and his brother intended to drive to New York and detonate additional explosives in Times Square,” Bloomberg added. “They had built these additional explosives – and we know that they had the capacity to carry out the attacks.”
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the suspects had a pressure cooker bomb like the two used in the Boston blasts and five pipe bombs that they wanted to set off.
They said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told Boston investigators from his hospital bed that he and his brother had discussed going to New York to detonate their remaining explosives. They said they decided it spontaneously.
“In the car, they made a decision to go to New York with the remaining explosives to detonate in Times Square,” Kelly said.
The brothers’ plan “fell apart,” Kelly said, when they realized that the Mercedes-Benz SUV they had stolen – after fatally shooting MIT security officer Sean Collier – had run out of gas.
Read more at NEWSMAX.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
