Would you have called the cops right away? If one of them was your friend, would you have called? Or would you have gone to his dorm room at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and taken his laptop and backpack filled with fireworks, and then dumped it all in the garbage?
That's what two friends and classmates of the surviving bombing suspect are now charged with doing. And a third classmate is charged with lying to federal agents about his knowledge of what they did.
All three men are 19, and, while they're in college, they are, to say the least, un-smart if the allegations are true.
In a 17-page criminal complaint, the feds claim all three have admitted their roles, although attorneys for 2 of them insist they have been fully cooperative with the feds. They did not deny the men threw out the evidence, however. And isn't that what anyone would do when they realize a friend was the suspect in the worst domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. since Sept. 11? NO, THEY WOULDN'T! For the record, the attorney for 2 of the suspects say they had no idea the stuff they were throwing out was tied to the bombings.
The complaint says they texted their bombing suspect friend and said something to the effect – hey man.. is that you, the bomber?
"LOL" was the response. And of course the natural thing to do next is go to his dorm room, grab the backpack and computer, and ditch them.
Not very difficult to recover that stuff, of course.
Now the kid charged with lying faces 8 years in prison, yes, it's very serious, lying to a federal agent. And the other two, already in custody by immigration officials for violating their student visas, face 5 years in prison.
Our Jim Dolan is in Boston tonight at 11 with the latest.
Also at 11, how is it possible to join the Army Reserves, complete your training, but never get your active duty pay? Errrrrrg. That's exactly what happened to a local man – a Private – whom we're calling the Army's invisible soldier. So what happened to him? Our investigative reporter Jim Hoffer has his story tonight.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11.
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