New Documents: ‘Boston Bomber’ Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Had Fractured Skull

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding in this boat in a Watertown backyard. (Getty Images)

Newly released court documents reveal that the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suffered from multiple, severe gunshots when he was captured hiding in a boat in a Watertown backyard in April, reports The Washington Times.

An April 22 transcript of a hearing with the doctor who treated the 20-year-old suspect gives the first full description of the injuries he sustained during the showdown with police on April 19, four days after the bombing in Boston that killed three people. During the hearing, at which Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty, he showed obvious signs of injury during his first public appearance.

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According to the document, the shots fired during his capture fractured his skull, tore into his ear and pharynx, and caused a ton of other physical damage. His most serious injury came from a bullet that entered the left side of his mouth and exited the lower left side of his face.

“This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in skull-base fracture, with injuries to the middle ear, the skull base, vertebrae, as well as injury to the pharynx [and] the mouth,” said the doctor who treated him, Stephen Ray Odom, in his April 22 testimony.

Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan, was killed when Dzhokhar ran him over as police were trying to arrest him. Tamerlan, 26, is also a suspect in the bombing.