Less than 48 hours after we got confirmation that Tamarlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev had amassed a mini-arsenal in preparation for another attack, CBS News' John Miller revealed how far their plans had gone. Miller was on CBS This Morning earlier today, and revealed that based on a conversation with the guy they carjacked on Thursday night, investigators believe the brothers were on their way to New York.
Investigators have new insight from the carjacking victim held hostage by Tamerlan and Dzokhar Thursday night. The victim speaks little to no English, according to CBS News special correspondent John Miller, but authorities pressed him to remember recognizable words from his exchange with the bombing suspects. The suspects openly boasted to the victim in English about their role in the Boston Marathon bombing and carried out the rest of their exchange in Russian.
John Miller reports that the victim said, "'the only word I recognized was Manhattan,'" a word which "tripped a lot" of alarms for authorities, who quickly halted Amtrak service from Boston to New York and searched the trains. The tip prompted the New York Police Department to "flip on its network of license plate readers at all bridges and tunnels coming into the city," Miller said. "They loaded all the license plates associated with these guys" to prevent possible entry into Manhattan.
Watch the full report
here:
Wow. And I was worried about them possibly ending up here in Charlotte. Logan was still open, and if the brothers had somehow slipped past the dragnet and made it on a plane, they could have easily ended up here. Nearly every flight coming from the Northeast stops over in Charlotte. Unlikely, I know ... but just the thought is pretty chilling.
Then again, the more I think about it, if they were indeed making plans to go to New York, it's yet more proof of their lack of planning. They had to have known their pictures were emblazoned all over the country--if they had even tried to get to New York, in all likelihood they would have been stopped at the Connecticut border (if they made it that far).
Miller also says that Dzokhar Tsarnaev is telling investigators that his brother was the driving force behind the scheme, and that they were lone wolves. He also said that according to investigators, the Tsarnaevs killed MIT police officer Sean Collier for his gun--only to find out he had a locking holster and they couldn't pull it out.