Runners continue to run towards the finish line of the Boston Marathon as an explosion erupts near the finish line of the race on April 15. (REUTERS)
The suspected Boston Marathon bombers wanted to attack New York — and specifically planned to blow up Times Square before they were captured, authorities said today.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, hatched their Gotham-bombing plans on the fly, shortly after carjacking a Mercedes SUV from motorist in Cambridge a week ago tonight, according to Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.
“In the [stolen] car they made the decision to go to New York with the remaining explosive devices,” Kelly said.
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The younger brother allegedly told investigators of their Big Apple plans this weekend from his hospital bed in Boston. FBI interrogators passed on the information to New York officials last night, officials said.
The Tsarnaev brothers had one explosive, fashioned from a pressure cooker, and five pipe bombs, officials said.
An army of cops and vast network of security cameras would have greeted the brothers in Times Square had they made it to New York, Bloomberg said.
“We don’t know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists,” Bloomberg said. “We’re just thankful we didn’t have to find out the answer.”
Had the bombers escaped from Boston late Thursday night and arrived in New York for a middle-of-the-night attack, the carnage could have still been horrific, officials said.
“There’s a significant number of people in Times Square at that hour,” Kelly said. “There are clubs, bars that are operating.”
This isn’t the first time Times Square has been in the cross-hairs of terrorists. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad planted a car bomb on 45th Street on May 1, 2010 but a street vendor saw smoke and the explosive was disabled.
Shahzad was arrested as he tried to leave the country and he’s been sentenced to life in prison.
“Clearly you saw the power of the bombs in Boston,” Kelly said. “You take that and you can just use your [imagination], you can give a guesstimate of what the damage would be in New York City,”
Dzhokhar had visited Times Square on April 18 last year and again in November, 2012, Kelly said.
“We don’t know if those visits were related in any way to the brothers’ spontaneous decision to target Times Square,” said Kelly, adding that NYPD investigators are still piecing together details of Dzhokhar’s recent trips here.
Thankfully, the suspected bomber brothers never got out of greater Boston last week.
After carjacked a motorist, that victim escaped and left his cell phone in the stolen car.
Cops hunted them down in Watertown, Mass., leading a to massive firefight with the brothers hurling bombs at officers.
In the confrontation with police, Tamerlan was wounded and then killed when a fleeing Dzhokhar ran over him.
The younger Tsarnaev was captured Friday night hiding in a dry-docked boat in the backyard of a Watertown resident.
The brothers’ deadly plans for New York City apparently didn’t run counter to having some fun here.
In an earlier interview with FBI agents, late Saturday night, Dzhokhar said the pair planned to come to New York and have a good time, officials said..
Then in a second interrogation of late Sunday night, the wounded alleged terrorist spilled bears on the planned New York assault, according to Kelly.
“He was a lot more lucid and much more detailed [in giving] information in the second questioning period,” Kelly said.
The Tsarnaev brothers allegedly unleashed two bombs at the Boston Marathon a week ago Monday, killing three spectators and maiming hundreds more.
They’re suspected of murdering a campus police officer at MIT on Thursday after their pictures were released to the public.
Additional reporting by David K. Li