(CNN) — A federal grand jury has returned a 30-count indictment against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts said Thursday.
The counts involve his “alleged role in using weapons of mass destruction” at the April 15 event “to kill three individuals and maim or seriously injure many others” and “using a firearm to intentionally kill Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Police Officer Sean Collier.” At least 264 people were injured in the double bombings, which took place near the marathon finish line.
Police took Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, into custody on April 19 after finding him hiding in a boat in the backyard of a Watertown, Massachusetts, home. The other bombing suspect, his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died after a gunfight with authorities hours before his brother’s arrest. After much secrecy and protest, Tamerlan was buried in a rural Virginia cemetery.
Tsarnaev was charged by indictment with a range of counts, the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a media statement.
The charges are use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and conspiracy; bombing of a place of public use resulting in death and conspiracy; malicious destruction of property resulting in death and conspiracy; use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence causing death; carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury; interference with commerce by threats or violence; and aiding and abetting.
Seventeen charges authorize a penalty of up to life in prison or the death penalty. Other charges authorize a maximum penalty of life in prison or a fixed term of years. He is scheduled to be arraigned on July 10 in U.S. District Court in Boston.
