Post by Focus on May 5, 2013 16:43:51 GMT
His business is being protested and he’s turned away by every cemetery, but a determined funeral director charged with burying the body of the Boston bomber says everyone deserves a dignified burial regardless of the circumstances of their death.
Worcester, Massachusetts funeral home owner Peter Stefan said dozens of protesters have gathered outside his business, upset with his decision to handle the service.
‘My problem here is trying to find a gravesite. A lot of people don't want to do it. They don't want to be involved with this,’ Stefan said. ‘I keep bringing up the point of Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh or Ted Bundy. Somebody had to do those, too.’
Determined : Worcester, Massachusetts funeral director Peter Stefan accepted the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and is determined to give him a proper burial
Every cemetery in Massachusetts has turned down the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Stefan told Fox News, but he remains insistent that this death be handled like any other.
‘I can’t control the circumstances of somebody’s death, or what they’ve done, or how they’ve died,’ said a defiant Stefan. ‘In this country, we bury the dead.’
Tsarnaev, 26, died from ‘gunshot wounds of torso and extremities’ and blunt trauma to his head and torso, said Worcester funeral home owner Peter Stefan, who has the accused bomber’s body and on Friday read details from his death certificate.
The certificate lists the time of his death as 1:35 a.m. on April 19, four days after the deadly bombing, Stefan said.
Professional : An officer stands in front of Stefan's funeral home . 'I can't control the circumstances of somebody's death,' says the funeral director
Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with authorities who had launched a massive manhunt for him and his brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago. Police have said he ran out of ammunition before his younger brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing.
Tsarnaev's family was making arrangements Friday for his funeral as investigators searched the woods near a college attended by 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured less than a day after his brother's death.
The body was released by the state medical examiner Thursday. It initially was taken to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters, before being taken to Stefan's Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, which is familiar with Muslim services.
Meanwhile, two U.S. officials said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators that he and his brother initially considered setting off their bombs on July Fourth.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Boston police said they planned to review security procedures for the Independence Day Boston Pops concert and fireworks display, which draws a crowd of more than 500,000 annually and is broadcast to a national TV audience. Authorities plan to look at security procedures for large events held in other cities, notably the massive New Year's Eve celebration held each year in New York City's Times Square, Massachusetts state police spokesman David Procopio said.
Gov. Deval Patrick said everything possible will be done to assure a safe event.
As part of the bombing investigation, federal, state and local authorities were searching the woods near the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student. Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, could not say what investigators were looking for but said residents should know there is no threat to public safety.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was found hiding in a tarp-covered boat in a backyard in Watertown, a Boston suburb, faces a charge of using a weapon of mass destruction to kill. Three of his college classmates were arrested Wednesday and accused of helping after the bombing to remove a laptop and backpack from his dormitory room before the FBI searched it.
The April 15 bombing, which used pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and metal shards, killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the marathon's finish line.
Angry : Dozens of protestors have begun picketing Stefan's business, like Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, pictured, who crossed the Boston marathon finish line minutes before the bombs detonated
The brothers decided to carry out the attack before Independence Day when they finished assembling the bombs, the surviving suspect told interrogators after he was arrested, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Investigators believe some of the explosives used in the attack were assembled in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's home, though there may have been some assembly elsewhere, one of the officials said. It does not appear that the brothers ever had big, definitive plans, the official said.
The brothers' mother insists the allegations against them are lies.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security ordered border agents to immediately begin verifying that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid student visa, according to an internal memorandum obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The new procedure is the government's first security change directly related to the Boston bombings.
The order from a senior official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, David J. Murphy, was circulated Thursday and came one day after President Barack Obama's administration acknowledged that one of the students accused of hiding evidence, Azamat Tazhayakov, of Kazakhstan, was allowed to return to the U.S. in January without a valid student visa.
Denied : Stefan says every cemetery in Massachusetts has turned down his request to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Tazhayakov's lawyer has said he had nothing to do with the bombing and was shocked by it.
Burn the b**tard - he's going straight to hell anyway!! - Fx
