Video Shows Suspects Approach, Flee Slain Officer’s Vehicle
An MIT grad student near the scene of campus police officer Sean Collier’s slaying said he saw accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev leaning into the patrolman’s cruiser around the time of his death.
Nate Harman, a math student at the university, told the court Wednesday that he was riding his bike on-campus the night of April 18, 2013, and saw a “young, dark, thin’’ man leaning into Collier’s ajar driver-side door. Authorities believe Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan shot Collier while he was sitting in his cruiser and then attempted to steal his firearm but were unsuccessful because of its three-latch holster.
A surveillance video of the scene presented in court showed two suspects approaching Collier’s vehicle on foot. Later in the video, the suspects flee the scene. Prosecutors have said these two suspects are Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The video also confirmed Harman biked past the scene of the killing when the Tsarnaev brothers were on either side of the vehicle, though the student said he only saw one individual.
“I thought he was just an MIT student,’’ Harman told the jury.
Tsarnaev is on trial at John Joseph Moakley Courthouse in South Boston. He faces 30 charges — 17 of which carry the possibility of the death penalty. His attorneys chose not to cross-examine Harman.
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