Bombing suspect awake, a 19-year-old bomber suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, who was seriously wounded and unable to speak, is awake and responding in writing to questions from authorities, according to tweets by ABC and NBC News networks.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in the intensive care unit of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is responding sporadically, the ABC news network reported on its Twitter feed.
NBC's Pete Williams is also reporting Tsarnaev is writing answers to questions from law enforcement.
Tsarnaev is being treated for a gunshot in the mouth that exited the back of his neck, according Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who was interviewed on CBS' "60 Minutes."
He also suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, Davis said.
Not licensed for guns
The two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, who police say engaged in a gun battle with officers after a frenzied manhunt, were not licensed to own guns in the towns where they lived, authorities said.
In the confrontation with police on the streets of a Boston suburb, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were armed with handguns, at least one rifle and several explosive devices, authorities say.
But neither brother appears to have been legally entitled to own or carry firearms where they lived, a fact that may add to the national debate over current gun laws.
Last week, the US Senate rejected a bill to expand background checks on gun purchases, legislation that opponents argued would do nothing to stop criminals from buying guns illegally.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed in the shootout with police, would have been required to apply for a gun license with the local police department where he lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
But there is no record of him having done so, according to Cambridge Police Department spokesman Dan Riviello.
Even if he had earlier received a gun licence from somewhere outside Cambridge, that licence would have to be registered with Cambridge police upon becoming a resident of the city, Riviello said. In Massachusetts, gun licences are issued by municipal police departments.
Advertisement
"There is no record of him having a licence to carry," Riviello said.
Tsarnaev's younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, who was captured alive after the manhunt, would have been too young to get a handgun license. Under state law, residents under 21 may only apply for a so-called firearms identification card, which allows the holder to own only rifles that hold 10 rounds or less and shotguns.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had no record of a firearms ID card in Cambridge. The police department in Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar was a student, said they had no record of gun licences or ID cards for either brother.
Police in nearby New Bedford, where the younger brother may have lived in the past, could not confirm whether they had issued Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a firearms ID card.
Federal law enforcement agencies have not confirmed a full tally of the brothers' arsenal.
Shot in the throat
Authorities earlier said they may never be able to speak with the surviving suspect due to injuries to his neck and tongue sustained while on the run from police, officials say.
Tsarnaev was shot in the throat and had tongue damage, said a source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is still unable to interview Tsarnaev, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told CBS television.
Tsarnaev was shot in the throat and had tongue damage, said a source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told ABC's This Week programme: "We don't know if we'll ever be able to question the individual." He did not elaborate on his condition.
ONE News US Correspondent Jack Tame said it could be days before investigators even had the chance to attempt to question the suspect.
He said investigators' were looking to question the 19-year-old without reading him his rights, which guarantees the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.
The government would invoke a rarely used public safety exception instead, he said, which permits law enforcement officials to engage in a limited and focused interrogation of a suspect without warning and allows the government to introduce the statement as evidence in court.
It is something that is allowed on a limited basis when the police or public may be in immediate danger, such as when bombs are planted and ready to go off.
Tame said officials say it is in the interest of national security to try and get any information out of Tsarnaev including whether there were any other accomplices.
Tsarnaev will be defended by the Federal Public Defender Office, which had yet to issue any public statements on the case.
The suspect remains in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center while US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the federal prosecutor for the Boston area, was working on filing criminal charges.
An announcement on charges could come later on Sunday (Monday NZT), he said.
Motive unknown
Investigators were seeking a motive for the Boston Marathon bombings and whether others were involved besides the ethnic Chechen brothers they suspect carried out the attacks.
The other identified suspect, older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a firefight with police on Friday, in the middle of the dramatic 26 hours between when the FBI released pictures of the two suspects and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's capture in the Boston suburbs.
Two bombs made in pressure cookers and packed with ball bearings and nails exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people and injuring 176 and setting of a tense week in the United States that culminated in a massive manhunt on Friday with the greater Boston area on lockdown.
The two brothers may have been readying for a second attack at the time of the shootout, Davis told CBS. Early indications were the brothers acted alone, Davis and other officials said.
When police were able to move in after the hail of bullets stopped, they found unexploded devices littering the street and one in the carjacked SUV that the brothers had been driving. The devices contained the same type of shrapnel used in the marathon bombs.
"There is no doubt that they were made by these two guys," Davis said.
Police finally found the suspect cowering in a boat in a backyard in Watertown, hours after police went door to door searching for him after he escaped on foot. A man went to check on his boat after the tarp had come loose.
"He saw the suspect, retreated, and called police and we were there instantaneously," Davis said.
Trip to Russia
Tamerlan Tsarnaev then travelled to Moscow in January 2012 and spent six months in the region, a law enforcement source said.
He spent at least a month last summer helping his father renovate his first-floor apartment next door to a dentistry in Makhachkala, a city in the Dagestan region on the Caspian Sea.
It was unclear if he could have had contact with militant Islamist groups in southern Russia's restive Caucasus region.
A group leading an Islamist insurgency against Russia said today that it was not at war with the United States, distancing itself from last week's Boston bombing.
A statement from militants operating in Dagestan, where the brothers spent time as children, said the leading insurgency group Caucasus Emirate, led by Russia's most wanted man Doku Umarov, was not attacking the United States.
"We are fighting with Russia, which is responsible not only for the occupation of the Caucasus but for monstrous crimes against Muslims," the statement said.
The insurgency is rooted in two separatist wars that Russian troops waged against Chechen separatists following the fall of the Soviet Union.
The role of the FBI is also being questioned after the agency said it had interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 after Russian security services raised concerns he followed radical Islam. The FBI said it did not find any "terrorism activity" at that time.
Tame said the FBI has come under fire by politicians who say they should have followed up after interviewing Tamerlan in 2011, saying his trip to Russia for six months should have raised a red flag.
The suspect's mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who now lives in Russia, told a Russian television station Tamerlan had been under FBI surveillance for years.
The bombings prompted contact between the United States and Russia, and the Kremlin said on Saturday the presidents of both countries agreed by telephone to increase cooperation on counter-terrorism.
Ruslan Tsarni, who said he was an uncle of the brothers, told CNN that he first noticed a change in Tamerlan's religious views in 2009. He suggested the radicalisation of his nephew happened while he was in the United States "in the streets of Cambridge (Massachusetts)."
The family immigrated to the United States about a decade ago.
The brothers spent their early years in a small community of Chechens in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million.
The family moved in 2001 to Dagestan, a southern Russian province that lies at the heart of a violent Islamist insurgency and where their parents now live.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in the intensive care unit of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is responding sporadically, the ABC news network reported on its Twitter feed.
NBC's Pete Williams is also reporting Tsarnaev is writing answers to questions from law enforcement.
Tsarnaev is being treated for a gunshot in the mouth that exited the back of his neck, according Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who was interviewed on CBS' "60 Minutes."
He also suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, Davis said.
Not licensed for guns
The two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, who police say engaged in a gun battle with officers after a frenzied manhunt, were not licensed to own guns in the towns where they lived, authorities said.
In the confrontation with police on the streets of a Boston suburb, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were armed with handguns, at least one rifle and several explosive devices, authorities say.
But neither brother appears to have been legally entitled to own or carry firearms where they lived, a fact that may add to the national debate over current gun laws.
Last week, the US Senate rejected a bill to expand background checks on gun purchases, legislation that opponents argued would do nothing to stop criminals from buying guns illegally.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed in the shootout with police, would have been required to apply for a gun license with the local police department where he lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
But there is no record of him having done so, according to Cambridge Police Department spokesman Dan Riviello.
Even if he had earlier received a gun licence from somewhere outside Cambridge, that licence would have to be registered with Cambridge police upon becoming a resident of the city, Riviello said. In Massachusetts, gun licences are issued by municipal police departments.
Advertisement
"There is no record of him having a licence to carry," Riviello said.
Tsarnaev's younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, who was captured alive after the manhunt, would have been too young to get a handgun license. Under state law, residents under 21 may only apply for a so-called firearms identification card, which allows the holder to own only rifles that hold 10 rounds or less and shotguns.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had no record of a firearms ID card in Cambridge. The police department in Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar was a student, said they had no record of gun licences or ID cards for either brother.
Police in nearby New Bedford, where the younger brother may have lived in the past, could not confirm whether they had issued Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a firearms ID card.
Federal law enforcement agencies have not confirmed a full tally of the brothers' arsenal.
Shot in the throat
Authorities earlier said they may never be able to speak with the surviving suspect due to injuries to his neck and tongue sustained while on the run from police, officials say.
Tsarnaev was shot in the throat and had tongue damage, said a source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is still unable to interview Tsarnaev, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told CBS television.
Tsarnaev was shot in the throat and had tongue damage, said a source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told ABC's This Week programme: "We don't know if we'll ever be able to question the individual." He did not elaborate on his condition.
ONE News US Correspondent Jack Tame said it could be days before investigators even had the chance to attempt to question the suspect.
He said investigators' were looking to question the 19-year-old without reading him his rights, which guarantees the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.
The government would invoke a rarely used public safety exception instead, he said, which permits law enforcement officials to engage in a limited and focused interrogation of a suspect without warning and allows the government to introduce the statement as evidence in court.
It is something that is allowed on a limited basis when the police or public may be in immediate danger, such as when bombs are planted and ready to go off.
Tame said officials say it is in the interest of national security to try and get any information out of Tsarnaev including whether there were any other accomplices.
Tsarnaev will be defended by the Federal Public Defender Office, which had yet to issue any public statements on the case.
The suspect remains in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center while US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the federal prosecutor for the Boston area, was working on filing criminal charges.
An announcement on charges could come later on Sunday (Monday NZT), he said.
Motive unknown
Investigators were seeking a motive for the Boston Marathon bombings and whether others were involved besides the ethnic Chechen brothers they suspect carried out the attacks.
The other identified suspect, older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a firefight with police on Friday, in the middle of the dramatic 26 hours between when the FBI released pictures of the two suspects and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's capture in the Boston suburbs.
Two bombs made in pressure cookers and packed with ball bearings and nails exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people and injuring 176 and setting of a tense week in the United States that culminated in a massive manhunt on Friday with the greater Boston area on lockdown.
The two brothers may have been readying for a second attack at the time of the shootout, Davis told CBS. Early indications were the brothers acted alone, Davis and other officials said.
When police were able to move in after the hail of bullets stopped, they found unexploded devices littering the street and one in the carjacked SUV that the brothers had been driving. The devices contained the same type of shrapnel used in the marathon bombs.
"There is no doubt that they were made by these two guys," Davis said.
Police finally found the suspect cowering in a boat in a backyard in Watertown, hours after police went door to door searching for him after he escaped on foot. A man went to check on his boat after the tarp had come loose.
"He saw the suspect, retreated, and called police and we were there instantaneously," Davis said.
Trip to Russia
Tamerlan Tsarnaev then travelled to Moscow in January 2012 and spent six months in the region, a law enforcement source said.
He spent at least a month last summer helping his father renovate his first-floor apartment next door to a dentistry in Makhachkala, a city in the Dagestan region on the Caspian Sea.
It was unclear if he could have had contact with militant Islamist groups in southern Russia's restive Caucasus region.
A group leading an Islamist insurgency against Russia said today that it was not at war with the United States, distancing itself from last week's Boston bombing.
A statement from militants operating in Dagestan, where the brothers spent time as children, said the leading insurgency group Caucasus Emirate, led by Russia's most wanted man Doku Umarov, was not attacking the United States.
"We are fighting with Russia, which is responsible not only for the occupation of the Caucasus but for monstrous crimes against Muslims," the statement said.
The insurgency is rooted in two separatist wars that Russian troops waged against Chechen separatists following the fall of the Soviet Union.
The role of the FBI is also being questioned after the agency said it had interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 after Russian security services raised concerns he followed radical Islam. The FBI said it did not find any "terrorism activity" at that time.
Tame said the FBI has come under fire by politicians who say they should have followed up after interviewing Tamerlan in 2011, saying his trip to Russia for six months should have raised a red flag.
The suspect's mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who now lives in Russia, told a Russian television station Tamerlan had been under FBI surveillance for years.
The bombings prompted contact between the United States and Russia, and the Kremlin said on Saturday the presidents of both countries agreed by telephone to increase cooperation on counter-terrorism.
Ruslan Tsarni, who said he was an uncle of the brothers, told CNN that he first noticed a change in Tamerlan's religious views in 2009. He suggested the radicalisation of his nephew happened while he was in the United States "in the streets of Cambridge (Massachusetts)."
The family immigrated to the United States about a decade ago.
The brothers spent their early years in a small community of Chechens in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million.
The family moved in 2001 to Dagestan, a southern Russian province that lies at the heart of a violent Islamist insurgency and where their parents now live.