A video from Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s wrestling days has been posted online by friends who are still struggling to understand what drove a seemingly normal 19-year-old college student to terrorism.
It’s still hard for many to imagine Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a normal kid, but friends of the 19-year-old are having a harder time imagining him as we’ve come to know him: As a domestic terrorist partially responsible for the deaths of four people and the injuries of over 170 spectators and participants at the Boston Marathon.
Yushun Tsou, who was on the wrestling team at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School with Tsarnaev, posted a video of “the Jahar I knew,” which shows him participating in a playful wrestling session in a basement during their high school years.
Tsou, who calls Dzhokhar “my friend and teammate,” is one of many struggling to reconcile the idea of their well-liked friend and classmate was America’s most wanted man on Friday.
In an interview with TODAY , the Tsarnaev brothers’ uncle Ruslan Tsarni pegged 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev as the architect of the Boston Marathon bombing. Suggesting that Tamerlan had become “radicalized” by currently-unknown mentors, Tsarni believes that Dzhokhar was merely following his big brother’s lead.
One of Dzhokhar’s former teammates agreed , saying that his interest in wrestling stemmed from his brother’s boxing aspirations. “He really loves his brother, looks up to him,” he said.
Tamerlan was killed in a firefight with police late Thursday/early Friday, and Dzhokhar led authorities on a city-wide manhunt until he was cornered and arrested Friday night. He is currently in serious condition at a Boston hospital, with everyone in the nation waiting to hear what he has to say for himself.
Those who knew him personally are at the front of that line.
You can watch Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s wrestling video below. Let us know what you think. What made this kid go bad?
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