Three police officers testified Monday the Boston Marathon bombing suspects fired guns at them for eight or nine minutes, threw bombs and tried to run them down with a stolen SUV.
The officers from Watertown said they, like all law enforcement in the area, were looking for anything suspicious after the marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds.
In the early morning hours of April 19, 2013 — four days after the bombing — a man told police two men had carjacked his 2013 Merceces SUV and one of them claimed to be a bomber.
Officer Joseph Reynolds said he passed the SUV and another car on Dexter Avenue, a residential section, turned around and called for backup.
“That’s when Tamerlan Tsarnaev got out of the driver’s side door and began shooting at my cruiser,” Reynolds testified Monday in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tamerlan’s younger brother. Another man, identified by authorities, as Dzhokhar began firing, too.
Other officers arrived and a full-scale, eight- or nine-minute gun battle ensued, Reynolds said.
“I reloaded, I have two spare mags, as well as the one on my gun, and I used all my bullets,” the officer said.
“I could see muzzle flashes — at least I thought they were muzzle flashes — from both sides of the vehicle,” said Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese.
“I put my vehicle in park, I took a round through the windshield, I was sprayed with glass and I knew, OK, we were being fired on,” said Sgt. John MacLellan.
Then the two men began throwing improvised explosives, including pipe bombs and a pressure cooker bomb, the officers testified.
“I noticed one was bigger than the other, and they had different styles when they were throwing the devices,” MacLellan said. “One was throwing like a baseball.”
MacLellan said the pressure cooker bomb “was incredibly loud. I had to holster my weapon. My eyes were shaking violently in my head. I couldn’t see.”
Pugliese said one of the men charged him. Pugliese fired and the man threw his pistol at the officer, hitting him in the bicep. Pugliese said he tackled the man, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was wounded from gunfire, and the three officers tried to put him in handcuffs.
“We were wrestling with Tamerlan, and all of a sudden I could hear an engine revving,” Reynolds said
The SUV, Reynolds said, was heading straight toward the officers
“I say get off, get off, he’s coming back at us. I pulled my gun out and I attempted to shoot the operator of the vehicle. The next thing that happened, was … we all kind of dispersed.”
“I reached down and I grabbed Tamerlan by the back of the belt and tried to drag him out of the street so he wouldn’t be hit,” Pugliese said. “The black SUV, it was right in my face. … I kind of laid back and felt the wind from the vehicle as it went by.”
But they didn’t move Tamerlan in time. His body became hung up in the rear wheels and the was dragged a short distance, Pugliese said.
The prosecutor asked Pugliese if there was something in the road that forced the SUV driver to go directly at the officers.
“No,” he said. “It as accelerating at a very high rate of speed.”
Later that day, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at a local hospital, with the cause listed as “traumatic injuries” to the head and torso. His fingerprints led to the identification of the suspects.
Officers discovered that Richard Donohue, a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer, had been hit by friendly fire during the shootout. He survived, but nearly bled to death.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested about 8:45 p.m. that same day, hiding in a boat in a back yard in Watertown.
On Monday morning, jurors went to a South Boston location and viewed that boat. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev showed little emotion or expression as he looked at the vessel, which was riddled with bullet holes and contained words he allegedly wrote on the inside the boat. His lawyer asked few questions on cross examination.