Christians Under Attack

Afterwards, her lawyers released a statement at her request that claimed she has been 'doing everything she can to assist with the investigation.'

'The injuries and loss of life - to people who came to celebrate a race and a holiday - has caused profound distress and sorrow to Katie and her family,' the statement read. 'The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all.'

Three of Russell's friends told National Public Radio's Laura Sullivan that Tsarnaev would often insult Russell and call her names, such as 'slut' and 'prostitute.'

He was known to fly into into fits of rage where he would throw objects, including furniture, friends said.

Russell's lawyer, Amato DeLuca, said she was a student at Suffolk University when she was introduced to Tsarnaev at a nightclub. He didn't specify the exact date that they met, though it's believed to be sometime during 2009.

Tsarnaev was seeing another woman at the time, he said.

'They went out for a while, and then they stopped and then they went out again,' DeLuca said.

It's possible the other woman that Tsarnaev was apparently dating was 25-year-old Nadine Ascencao of Brookline, Mass.

Tsarnaev was arrested in July 2009 for allegedly slapping Ascencao, according to court records.

Ascencao was 'crying hysterically' and called 911 to report that she was 'beat up by her boyfriend,' Cambridge Police Officer Angela Pereira wrote in the arrest report.

Tsarnaev told Pereira and another officer that his girlfriend 'was yelling at him because of another girl.'

Asked whether he had hit Ascencao, Tsarnaev stated, 'Yes, I slapped her.' He specifically stated that he struck the left side of her face.

Eleven months later, Tsarnaev was apparently no longer dating Aschencao. He had persuaded Russell to convert from Christianity to Islam and the couple married on June 21, 2010.

Around the same time, Russell became pregnant with Tsarnaev's baby. She dropped out of school in her senior year and reportedly began pulling away from her friends and family. 

Mary Silberman, whose apartment backs up to Tsarnaev's Cambridge home, said she often heard loud arguments late at night that mostly consisted of a woman's voice yelling at a man.

'It wasn't enough to call the police,' Silberman told Reuters. 'It didn't sound like anyone was in physical danger.'

But the shouting was often loud enough to keep her awake at night. She could also hear the couple's daughter, Zahara, now three years old, wailing at night and she often wondered why the mother wasn't responding, she said.

As the girl grew into a toddler, Silberman said she would see Zahara staring out the window. 

Since Tsarnaev's death, Russell has been staying with her family in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Her lawyer, Amato DeLuca, told CNN on Monday that the 24-year-old is 'very distraught' and 'cries a lot.'

Regarding the bomb plot, DeLuca said, 'She knew nothing about it at any time.'

'The whole family is a mess, to put it bluntly,' he said. 'They're very distraught. They're upset. Their lives have been unalterably changed. They're upset because of what happened, the people that were injured, that were killed. It's an awful, terrible thing.'

Russell works 70 to 80 hours a week as a home health aide, according to family members. Tsarnaev was unemployed. 

Judith Russell, the 24-year-old's mother, read an emotional statement to the media outside the timber-framed detached family home.

 

 

‘Our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child,' she said. 'We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted.’

She added: ‘In the aftermath of the Patriots’ Day horror, we now know that we never really knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313473/Boston-bo... 
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