Samstwitch
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Terror charges filed against Boston marathon bombing suspect
Terror charges have been formally filed against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspected of helping carry out the bomb attack last week's Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more then 200 others.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Tsarnaev has been charged with "using a weapon of mass destruction against persons and property at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, resulting in the death of three people and injuries to more than 200 people."
Tsarnaev made his made initial appearance before magistrate judge in his hospital bed at the heavily-guarded Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he remains in serious condition. According to a federal official, Tsarnaev is sedated and unable to speak.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tsarnaev would not be held as enemy combatant. Tsarnaev is expected to face terror charges that could bring the death penalty.
[Related: Tsarnaev remains in serious condition at hospital, FBI says]
Tsarnaev was brought by ambulance to the facility after he was captured in Watertown, Mass., on Friday, following an intense manhunt that included at least two shootouts with police and ended with the bloodied suspect taken into custody from a tarp-covered boat he had been hiding in. He apparently suffered gunshot wounds to the neck and leg.
Tsarnaev's 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, the other suspect wanted by the FBI, was killed during a late-night firefight with police in Watertown. Tsarnaev managed to escape on foot, prompting a citywide lockdown as police conducted a house-by-house search for the alleged killer.
The Tsarnaev brothers, who were born in the former Russian territory known as Kyrgyzstan and are of Chechen descent, lived in Cambridge, Mass., for several years. Dzhokhar became a naturalized American citizen last year.