Carjacking Victim Recalls ‘Terrifying’ Night at Boston Bombing Trial

The man carjacked by the accused Boston Marathon bombers in April 2013 recalled the “terrifying” experience on Thursday during testimony in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Dun Meng told a federal court that Dzhokhar’s older brother, Tamerlan, got into his car on April 18, 2013, and pulled out a gun, Reuters reports. After flashing the magazine of the loaded weapon, Meng added, Tamerlan asked if he was familiar with the attack earlier in the week that left three people dead and more than 200 injured.

“I said, ‘Yes, I know.’ He asked, ‘Do you know who did it?’ I said, “No, I don’t.’ He said. ‘I did it and I just killed a policeman in Cambridge,'” Meng said.

The Tsarnaev brothers are accused of shooting dead MIT police officer Sean Collier before commandeering Meng’s car, from which he escaped when the brothers stopped at a gas station.

“This seems the most terrifying moment, most difficult decision in my life,” Meng said, adding that Tamerlan told him he wouldn’t be killed at the time. “I was struggling, should I trust him about that? Or should I take this chance by myself to run away?”

A gunfight with police afterward is said to have culminated with Dzhokhar driving off in Meng’s Mercedes and directly over Tamerlan, killing him. Police would find him hidden in a drydocked boat in nearby Watertown the next night.

When the trial opened last week, the legal team for Dzhokhar, 21, said their client carried out the bombing but, in a bid to spare him the death penalty, charged that Tamerlan was the mastermind. If he is found guilty by a jury, he could be sentenced to death.

[Reuters]