Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Photo:
FBI via Getty; Charles Krupa/AP Photo
Twelve years have passed since two bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and only one of the perpetrators is still alive.
On April 15, 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev planted two pressure cooker bombs among the crowds cheering on runners as they completed the historic race. The brothers left the area and detonated the bombs remotely around 2:49 p.m., killing three people and injuring over 200 others, per CNN.
In the days-long manhunt that followed, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan killed police officer Sean Collier and kidnapped a man while they attempted to flee Boston. But police caught up with the brothers before they got too far, and Tamerlan was killed after he was shot and his brother ran him over. Dzhokhar was apprehended hours later.
Here’s everything to know about what happened to the Boston Marathon bombers and where Dzhokhar is now, 12 years after the fatal attack.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Julia Malakie/The Lowell Sun via AP
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was 26 at the time, planted the first bomb during the 2013 Boston Marathon in front of the athletic retailer Marathon Sports.
Two years before the bombing, a foreign government asked the FBI for information regarding Tamerlan and believed that he could be a follower of radical Islam. The request noted that he had “changed drastically” since 2010 and was prepared to leave the U.S. to allegedly join “unspecific underground groups.”
The FBI interviewed Tamerlan and his family members and found no evidence of radical activity.
Days after he orchestrated the Boston Marathon bombing with Dzhokhar, one of the brothers shot and killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer Sean Collier in Cambridge after the FBI released surveillance photos of the bombing suspects. Tamerlan is believed to be the shooter.
During the following manhunt, Tamerlan was shot multiple times and eventually ran over by his brother when police officers were attempting to arrest him.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. FBI via Getty
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a convicted terrorist who planted the second bomb at the 2013 Boston Marathon in front of a restaurant called Forum.
He was a 19-year-old student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at the time of the attack and was apprehended by police in Watertown, Mass., after a four-day manhunt on April 19, 2013.
During his trial, where he was facing 30 charges, Dzhokhar’s attorneys claimed that his older brother was the mastermind behind the bombing and that their client just “followed him.” During closing arguments, defense attorney Judy Clarke told the jury that “if not for Tamerlan, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Dzhokhar has never denied his role in the bombing and claimed that he and his brother acted alone without the aid of an outside group.
A memorial honoring Crosses memorializing Boston Marathon bombing victims Martin Richard, Lu Lingzi and Krystie Campbell in Boston. Rick Friedman/rickfriedman.com/Corbis via Getty
Three people were killed in the Boston Marathon bombing: Krystle Marie Campbell, Lingzi Lu and Martin Richard, who was 8 years old at the time of his death.
In addition to the fatalities, over 260 people were injured in the explosion and at least 17 people lost limbs.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Glenn DePriest/Getty
After Collier was shot, the brothers then carjacked and kidnapped Northeastern University graduate student Dun Meng and forced him to drive them to Watertown, Mass., in an attempt to flee. But while they were filling up at a gas station, Meng escaped, and police were able to track down the car using his phone, which he had left inside.
Hours later, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar engaged in a shootout with police. Officers were able to tackle Tamerlan after multiple gunshot wounds weakened him, but Dzhokhar ran him over with Meng’s car while fleeing the scene.
Tamerlan was pronounced dead around 1:30 a.m. on April 19, 2013, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His cause of death was traumatic injuries to his head and torso.
Two explosions went off near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty
Dzhokhar faced 30 felony charges for his role in the Boston Marathon bombing, 18 of which carried the death penalty, per WBUR. Among them were charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against persons and property, resulting in death.
During his sentencing in June 2015, a close friend of Campbell’s, Karen McWatters, told the convicted killer that he would “die alone” in prison.
Survivor Rebekah Gregory, who lost a leg in the explosion, told Dzhokhar to “listen closely” before saying, “You create mass destruction, but do you know what mass destruction does? It brings people together. The legacy is survivor strength and resilience.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. AFP via Getty
In March 2015, Dzhokhar was found guilty of all 30 criminal charges and was later sentenced to death by lethal injection. However, an appeal court vacated his death sentence in 2020 after it was revealed that at least two jurors had posted about the attack on social media prior to the trial.
In 2022, the Supreme Court overruled the appeals court’s decision and reinstated the convicted bomber’s death sentence.
As of 2025, he is being held on death row at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colo., which has housed other notorious terrorists like 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski and attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid.
