An Emory University student said he was shocked when the Boston Marathon bombing happened. He was even more surprised when he realized he knew one of the suspects.
On Friday, Benjamin Kramer-Roach’s brother called and told him the name of one of the bombing suspects - Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He immediately thought of his schoolmate, who he remembered being extremely nice.
“It’s very hard to mentally connect my animosity with someone who I knew, especially because I didn’t expect it,” said Kramer-Roach on Friday. “He is my brother’s age and he went to my high school and now the whole city is after him.”
Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, are suspected of placing two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon that killed three and wounded 180 others. The pair are accused also accused of killing an MIT policeman, wounding another lawman, and throwing explosives at a police car.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed overnight in a shootout with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev escaped, but was captured Friday night in Watertown, Mass., after an intense manhunt.
Kramer-Roach, 21, and Tsarnaev, 19, attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Mass., and rode the same bus as their homes were about a mile apart. The school’s alumni include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing.
After his initial reaction to the news, Kramer-Roach’s thoughts turned to his hometown.
Cambridge was quiet and safe place before the attack, he said. Then everything changed. “It felt like an attack on my home. It made me realize things like this can happen to anyone,” he said.
“Cambridge is a very diverse community with open ideas,” Kramer-Roach said in expressing surprise that anyone from the community could be linked to such a destructive act.
Tsarnaev and his brother immigrated from Chechnya, Russia, about a decade ago, according to their uncle who was interviewed by the media on Friday.
After hearing the news on Friday, Kramer-Roach spent some time, reading Facebook posts from his hometown.
“He was nice,” Kramer-Roach said. “According to teachers, he was really courteous and never rude. He was always nice to people.
“My pride is hurt because Cambridge is such a great place,” he said. “Now it will be known for the next few years because of the bombing.”
-The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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