Commissioner Kelly: Boston Bombing Suspects Planned To 'Party' In NYC
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings were planning to come to New York City to "party" after the attack, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), told CBS News that a remote control for a toy car was used to detonate the bombs.
Sources told CBS News on Tuesday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, admitted that he and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were behind the bombings and that they had plans to go to Manhattan.
But according to intelligence gathered by Boston investigators, their intent was not to carry out another bombing, Kelly said.
Kelly: Boston Bombing Suspects Planned To 'Party' In NYC
"Information that we received it's something about 'partying' or 'having a party,'" Kelly said. "The bit of information that we have...it may have been words to the effect of 'coming to party' in New York."
So far, no other specifics have been given, CBS 2's Alice Gainer reported.
WEB EXTRA: Read The Complaint Against Tsarnaev (.pdf)
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in New York City last November and possibly later than that, Kelly said, but there is no evidence indicating that he was looking at possible targets.
A picture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with four other people in Times Square was posted on his Twitter account, but it is unclear whether the photograph was taken in November, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
Investigators had said the suspects may have set out for New York City if not for the death of Tamerlan and the eventual capture of Dzhokhar.
Kelly: Boston Bombing Suspects Planned To 'Party' In NYC
According to the criminal complaint against Dzhokhar released Monday, the suspects spoke to a carjacking victim in English about their role in the Boston Marathon bombing and then carried out the rest of their exchange in Russian.
"Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that," one of the suspects told the victim, the affidavit said.
The Boston Globe reported they allegedly told the victim: "We just killed a cop. We blew up the marathon and now we are going to New York. Don't [expletive] with us."
That set off an alarm for authorities, who quickly halted Amtrak service from Boston to New York, searched trains and prompted the NYPD to "flip on its network of license plate readers at all bridges and tunnels coming into the city" to prevent the suspects from entering Manhattan, CBS News Correspondent John Miller said.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout, while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured alive but badly wounded. He was charged by federal prosecutors in his hospital room Monday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.
The body of Tamerlan has yet to be claimed, but both parents plan to fly in Thursday to do so and that has some wondering if they'll receive assistance from the government.
"Not necessarily. I mean I don't know in this particular case the details of the citizenship or the travel documents of family members but it just depends on the circumstances," said State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman Patrick Ventrell.
The parents' plan is to bring the body back to Russia. Currently, U.S. investigators are in that country to press them for more information.
Meanwhile, after meeting with the FBI and other law enforcement on Tuesday, lawmakers said it appears the brothers were motivated by a strain of anti-American Islamic extremism and were radicalized through the Internet, with Tamerlan heading up the bombing plot, Gainer reported.
