Boston Marathon Bombings: Who Were the Bombers?

Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of bombing and death. Reader discretion is advised.

Boston Marathon bombings continue to be remembered more than a decade after the tragedy took place. Orchestrated by two brothers, the bomb explosions left three dead and hundreds injured on April 15, 2013, near the marathon’s finish line.

The Netflix documentary American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing was released around the 10th anniversary of the tragedy. The three-part series delved into the massive manhunt that followed the terror attack to find the Boston Marathon bombers.

Who were the Boston Marathon bombers?

Per The New York Times, the police carried out an intense search for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The brothers were 26 and 19 at the time, respectively. The gunfight in Watertown left Tamerlan fatally wounded, while Dzhokhar managed to escape as he ran over his older brother. Tamerlan was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead soon after. Following Dzhokhar‘s disappearance, authorities launched a massive manhunt for as hundreds of police officers were diffused across New England. He was eventually found near Watertown, Massachusetts, and taken into custody.

NBC News noted that Dzhokhar sustained wounds on his face and jaw from the gunshot. While in the hospital, he told the FBI agents that the Boston Marathon bombers built the explosives and planned the attack on their own. As he was unable to speak, Dzhokhar answered the questions via handwritten notes.

In 2015, the court sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death after getting convicted of all 30 charges against him, reported AP News. His death sentence was overturned by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston in 2020. It ruled that the trial judge had excluded evidence that could have exhibited that Dzhokhar was under the influence of his older brother. However, Tsarnaev’s death sentence was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2022.

Per the latest updates, Tsarnaev’s death sentence was put on hold in 2024 as a federal appeals court ordered the case to return to a lower court, reported CBS News.

Where were the Boston Marathon bombers from?

Another report by AP News reported that the Boston Marathon bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers, were ethnic Chechens. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar lived in Kyrgyzstan and Russia before moving to the United States.

American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing is available to watch on Netflix.

Shriya Swami

Shriya Swami is a Thai Drama Writer at ComingSoon. From K-World to Thai Drama, anime, and more, she is an avid follower of Asian entertainment and is a pop culture nerd. In addition to her entertainment coverage, Shriya occasionally writes about True Crime and Documentaries.