Suspect died of gunshots
Meanwhile, officials say July 4th attack was eyed
BOSTON
- A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, his death certificate says.
Worcester funeral home owner Peter Stefan has 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body and read details from his death certificate last night.
Tsarnaev died last month after a gunfight with authorities. Police have said he ran out of ammunition before his brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene.
Younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces a charge of using a weapon of mass destruction to kill.
The April 15 bombing near the marathon's finish line killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Authorities say the Tsarnaev brothers later killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer.
Their mother says the allegations are lies.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's family was making arrangements for his funeral as investigators searched the woods yesterday near a college attended by his younger brother.
The funeral parlor in Worcester is familiar with Muslim services and said it will handle arrangements for Tsarnaev, whose body was released by the state medical examiner Thursday night.
The body was taken initially to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters. Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, an hour's drive west of Boston, said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of his death and he is prepared for protests.
Tsarnaev died three days after the bombing in a furious getaway attempt in which authorities say he and his brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago, killed an MIT campus police officer and tossed homemade bombs and grenades at police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, ran over his brother's body as he drove away from the scene to escape, authorities have said.
Meanwhile, two U.S. officials said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators that he and his brother initially considered setting off their bombs on July Fourth.
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.
"I think the most important thing is that we got them, and there's investigation continuing about where the other leads may lead," he said.