Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife refuses to talk to federal investigators as she mourns the death of her husband, who was killed two weeks ago during a standoff on the campus of MIT as law enforcement closed in on the brothers.
A lawyer confirms Tsarnaev’s wife refuses to talk to authorities about her husband as she plans his funeral, and attorney Amato DeLuca says the American-born woman has not yet decided how to broach the subject of her spouse’s suspected involvement in the Boston Marathon attack.
Although Tsarnaev’s wife refuses to speak, DeLuca says, his client knew “nothing about [the Boston bombings] at any time,” and the attorney explains that the family is coping with the aftermath of the shocking events in the days after the attack:
“The whole family is a mess, to put it bluntly. They’re very distraught. They’re upset … Their lives have been unalterably changed. They’re upset because of what happened, the people that were injured, that were killed. It’s an awful, terrible thing.”
Soon after the Tsarnaevs were revealed to be prime suspects in the attack, DeLuca released a statement on behalf of Katherine Russell Tsarnaev and her family, saying:
“The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all. As a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, Katie deeply mourns the pain and loss to innocent victims — students, law enforcement, families and our community.”
The statement continued: “In the aftermath of this tragedy, she, her daughter and her family are trying to come to terms with these events.”
Following the attack and reports that Katherine is keeping quiet, DeLuca addressed reports that Tsarnaev’s wife is refusing to speak to investigators, saying he and his client are “deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this.”