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The writings on the inside of the boat where suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid during the manhunt for him.(Photo: United States District Attorney's Office via European Pressphoto Agency)
BOSTON — The police officer who confronted the Boston Marathon bombing suspects while on patrol three nights after the attacks took the witness stand Monday to describe a harrowing, eight-minute shootout, punctuated by a massive explosion from a pressure-cooker bomb that rattled the suburban neighborhood.
"It was non-stop," recalled Watertown, Mass., police officer Joseph Reynolds, who said the shooting ended when he and other officers managed to tackle the older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Just as quickly, they heard an engine revving and saw younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the wheel of a stolen SUV, pedal to the metal and heading straight for them.
The cops managed to scramble out of the way, but Tamerlan died when the SUV struck him.
"It was very violent," Sgt. John MacLellan said. "The car was jumping back and forth with the body stuck up under the wheels."
The officers' testimony came Monday morning in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, who is charged in a 30-count indictment, including 17 counts that could carry the death penalty.
When Reynolds began his regular patrol on the night of April 18, 2013, he told jurors, his supervisor told him to be extra vigilant because an MIT campus security officer had been killed just miles away.
At 12:38 a.m., the patrolling Reynolds got word to be on the lookout for a carjacked Mercedes SUV. He saw a vehicle that matched the description and plate number.
"He was driving slow, very suspicious," Reynolds told jurors. "We locked eyes."
Moments later, Reynolds said, the SUV stopped and Tamerlan got out. He moved toward the cruiser, pulled a gun and fired on Reynolds, who took cover under the dashboard and threw his Ford Escape into reverse.
For the next eight minutes, Reynolds said, a ferocious battle ensued. Reynolds used his driver's door for cover and fired on Tamerlan, who took cover and kept firing from behind the Mercedes door.
Reynolds called for backup and sought cover in a yard behind a tree with another officer.
"We continued the gunfight with the two suspects," Reynolds said. "I could see two men. I could see muzzle flashes, a lighter being lit and what looked like a wick burning."
It was the first of four pipe bombs that the suspects would toss in their direction. Three exploded; one was a dud.
The officer taking cover with Reynolds, MacLellan said the first bomb wasn't too impressive, resembling an M-80 firecracker. But then came more power, as both officers recalled.
"I saw a larger type bomb being thrown at us — a cylinder, like a big cooking pot, a big pan," Reynolds said. Prosecutors called it a pressure cooker bomb, similar to the ones used near the marathon finish line.
Police with guns drawn search for a suspect on April 19, 2013, in Watertown, Mass., after a shootout between police and the brothers Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images)
"It was incredible," MacLellan said. "It was horrendous. A lot of debris — I thought shingles were coming off houses. … A lot of smoke, car alarms, people screaming."
The suspects fired dozens of rounds, MacLellan testified. Reynolds said he reloaded his 40-caliber Glock twice with fresh magazines and emptied everything he had.
More officers arrived to provide backup. Reynolds said he thought at one point that he had a good angle on Tamerlan and moved out from behind his cover to "end the threat" by firing on the older brother. Still armed, Tamerlan rushed him from about 30 yards away. When he was just 10 feet away, Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese tackled him.
All three officers then tried to wrestle the 6'3" Tamerlan to the ground. Then Reynolds heard an engine revving.
"Get off! Get off! He's coming back toward us!" Reynolds recalled yelling. Dzhokhar was driving the SUV, , he said, and heading straight for them.
The officers were able to get out of the way in the nick of time. The SUV ran over Tamerlan.
The Mercedes' front end smashed into the Ford Escape cruiser that Reynolds had been driving, and the two vehicles were briefly stuck together. When the Mercedes broke free, it disappeared into the night, with Dzhokhar at the wheel. Officers rushed to answer an "officer down" call and tended to Dick Donahue, who had been severely injured in the gunfire.
Jurors saw a photo, taken before dawn, depicting the Ford Escape. It had a tire blown out. A large pool of blood had welled up next to the driver's door. MacLellan identified the blood as Tamerlan's.
Dzhokhar was later captured hiding inside a boat stored in a nearby backyard. Earlier Monday, jurors got a first-hand look at the bullet-riddled, blood-stained boat.
Jurors saw the boat on a flatbed at an off-site, undisclosed location in South Boston. Defense attorneys had asked that jurors be allowed to see the entire boat, not just panels or photos of writings Tsarnaev made while hiding in it.
The boat had at least 108 bullet holes in it, according to a pool report, as well as faded blood stains. Jurors paid close attention while Tsarnaev, seated under a canopy tent, looked on.
Jurors last week saw photos of a note Tsarnaev scrawled on the boat's hull. His lawyers want the jury to see the note in context. Prosecutors call the message, which decries the suffering of innocent Muslims at the hands of the U.S. government, Tsarnaev's "manifesto."
Tsarnaev's defense team has acknowledged that he was involved in the April 15, 2013, twin bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260 at the marathon finish line. But they argue that their client, who was 19 at the time, played a lesser role than his late brother, who they insist was the mastermind behind the plot.
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