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Updated: 11:18 p.m. Friday, May 3, 2013 | Posted: 11:16 p.m. Friday, May 3, 2013

Boston bomb suspect died of gunshots, blunt trauma

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Bombing probe takes investigators into Mass. woods photo
Massachusetts State Police walk out of the woods of The Smith Neck Farm in Dartmouth, Mass. on Friday, May 3, 2013 as federal, state and local authorities on Friday searched the woods near the UMass-Dartmouth campus as part of the marathon investigation. (AP Photo/The Standard-Times, John Sladewski)
Bombing probe takes investigators into Mass. woods photo
Peter Stefan, funeral director and owner of Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, Mass., sits in one of the facility's rooms Friday, May 3, 2013. Stefan confirmed his funeral home will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but did not say whether he had possession of the body. (AP Photo/The Telegram & Gazette, Chris Christo)
Bombing probe takes investigators into Mass. woods photo
FILE - In this undated photo provided by Robin Young, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, left, and Here & Now host Robin Young's nephew, right, pose for a photo after graduating from Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. Tsarnaev was about 9 when he came to the United States from the Russian Caucasus region. He was more integrated in daily American life than his older brother, according to accounts from friends and relatives. (AP Photo/Robin Young)
Boston bomb suspect's family makes funeral plans photo
Don Law speaks at a news conference for The One Fund Benefit concert at House of Blues Boston on May 3, 2013 in Boston. Aerosmith, James Taylor, and Jimmy Buffett are among the scheduled performers for a Boston Marathon benefit concert May 30. The show, at the TD Garden, will benefit One Fund, the collection of donations that will be distributed to the survivors of the April 15 bombings and the families of those killed in the attack. (AP Photo/The Boston Herald, Ted Fitzgerald) BOSTON GLOBE OUT; METRO BOSTON OUT; MAGS OUT; ONLINE OUT
Boston bomb suspect died of gunshots, blunt trauma photo
Map locates Boston funeral home associated with Boston Marathon bombing.
Boston bomb suspect died of gunshots, blunt trauma photo
FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, smiles after accepting the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, the older of the brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombing, died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, his death certificate says. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun, Julia Malakie, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

By BOB SALSBERG

The Associated Press

BOSTON —

A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, a funeral director said Friday.

Worcester funeral home owner Peter Stefan has 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body and read details from his death certificate. The certificate cites Tsarnaev's "gunshot wounds of torso and extremities" and lists the time of his death as 1:35 a.m. on April 19, four days after the deadly bombing, Stefan said.

Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with authorities who had launched a massive manhunt for him and his brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago. Police have said he ran out of ammunition before his younger brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing.

Tsarnaev's family on Friday was making arrangements for his funeral as investigators searched the woods near a college attended by 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured less than a day after his brother's death.

The funeral parlor in Worcester is familiar with Muslim services and said it will handle arrangements for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whose body was released by the state medical examiner Thursday.

The body initially was taken to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters. Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, an hour's drive west of Boston, said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of his or her death and he is prepared for protests.

"My problem here is trying to find a gravesite. A lot of people don't want to do it. They don't want to be involved with this," said Stefan, who said dozens of protesters gathered outside his funeral home, upset with his decision to handle the funeral. "I keep bringing up the point of Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh or Ted Bundy. Somebody had to do those, too."

Meanwhile, two U.S. officials said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators that he and his brother initially considered setting off their bombs on July Fourth.

Boston police said they planned to review security procedures for the Independence Day Boston Pops concert and fireworks display, which draws a crowd of more than 500,000 annually and is broadcast to a national TV audience. Authorities plan to look at security procedures for large events held in other cities, notably the massive New Year's Eve celebration held each year in New York City's Times Square, Massachusetts state police spokesman David Procopio said.

Gov. Deval Patrick said everything possible will be done to assure a safe event.

"I think the most important thing is that we got them, and there's investigation continuing about where the other leads may lead," he said. "I can tell you, having been thoroughly briefed, that the law enforcement at every level is pursuing everything."

As part of the bombing investigation, federal, state and local authorities were searching the woods near the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student. Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, could not say what investigators were looking for but said residents should know there is no threat to public safety.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was found hiding in a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston backyard, faces a charge of using a weapon of mass destruction to kill. Three of his college classmates were arrested Wednesday and accused of helping after the bombing to remove a laptop and backpack from his dormitory room before the FBI searched it.

The April 15 bombing, using pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and metal shards, killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the marathon's finish line.

The brothers decided to carry out the attack before Independence Day when they finished assembling the bombs, the surviving suspect told interrogators after he was arrested, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Investigators believe some of the explosives used in the attack were assembled in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's home, though there may have been some assembly elsewhere, one of the officials said. It does not appear that the brothers ever had big, definitive plans, the official said.

The brothers' mother insists the allegations against them are lies.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security ordered border agents to immediately begin verifying that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid student visa, according to an internal memorandum obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The new procedure is the government's first security change directly related to the Boston bombings.

The order from a senior official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, David J. Murphy, was circulated Thursday and came one day after President Barack Obama's administration acknowledged that one of the students accused of hiding evidence, Azamat Tazhayakov, of Kazakhstan, was allowed to return to the U.S. in January without a valid student visa.

Tazhayakov's lawyer has said he had nothing to do with the bombing and was shocked by it.

A benefit concert featuring Aerosmith, James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett is scheduled for May 30 at the TD Garden in Boston. The proceeds will go to The One Fund, which has taken in more than $28 million for those injured and the families of those who were killed.

The fund's administrator, Kenneth Feinberg, said Friday he plans to hold meetings with victims next week and begin cutting checks by the end of June.

___

Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Mark Pratt in Boston and Pete Yost, Eileen Sullivan and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright The Associated Press

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