Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has every reason to live and love America.
Now he’s the nation’s most wanted accused criminal, as cops shut down Boston and surrounding suburbs today in an unprecedented manhunt for this suspected bomber.
The fugitive came to America in 2009, according to his Facebook page – though family members said Tsarnaev has been here for a decade.
Tsarnaev excelled in school, winning a $3,500 scholarship in 2011, according to his Facebook.
He listed his languages as “English, Russian and the Chechen language” and Islam to be his religion, according to the page.
1 BOSTON MARATHON BOMB SUSPECT DEAD, MANHUNT UNDERWAY FOR BROTHER
Dzhokhar graduated in 2011 from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a prestigious public high school just outside Boston.
He wrestled in high school and one neighbor said he’s completely floored that the sweet teenager he knew could be “Suspect No. 2” in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing.
“He was so grateful to be here, so grateful to be at the school, so grateful to be accepted,” photographer and neighbor Larry Aaronson told CNN.
“There was nothing [in Tsarnaev’s background] remotely close to this at all. He was a lovely kid.”
Tsarnaev was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where cops descended on campus and shut it down today.
Classmates said Tsarnaev lived on the third floor of Pine Dale dorm, where he was spotted all week – never showing any hints he might have been involved in Monday’s deadly attack.
“He was regular, he was calm,” said student Harry Danso, who lives on the same dorm floor as the suspect.
Another student, 19-year-old Florida Addy, lived on the same floor as Tsarnaev last year and said he enjoyed speaking his native language with other students from Russia.
Even though Tsarnaev kept to himself, Addy said she always found him to be friendly. Addy last saw him a week ago when she bummed a cigarette from him.
“He was nice,” Addy said. “He was was cool. I’m just in shock.”
The picture of Tsarnaev as a friendly, unassuming young man was repeated over and over by those who knew him through school.
Former teacher Aaronson said he understands how unbelievable this version of Tsarnaev appears to be.
“I’m not trying to protect or cover up,” he said. “This is the way I knew him to be.”
According to Tsarnaev’s Facebook page, he lists five things he “likes” including “corporation of evil” which is accompanied by a photo from Angry Birds.
He also likes a Web site that hails Russia’s decision to forbid adoptions of Russian children to US parents.
The fugitive also shows an interest in flags of caucuses in the republic and iPhones. His various posts show an interest in the spread of Islam.
He also posted an Instagram image of a Syrian child bleeding with the caption, “U don’t care because I am not ur child right?”
Earlier today, the father of the suspects claimed that his son who is still on the loose is a smart and accomplished young man.
Anzor Tsarnaev, in telephone interview from the Russian city of Makhachkala, called his fugitive son an “angel.”
“My son is a true angel,” the elder Tsarnaev said. “Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the US. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here.”
A year-old YouTube video shows Tsarnaev in a video titled “Caucus Accents” where he parodies different accents by doing impressions of each with the caption “Islam is not the religion of terrorism! Judge Muslims on Islam, not vice versa!”
A radicalized Tsarnaev wouldn’t match the young man known to classmates.
“He was normal,” Rindge & Latin classmate Lulu Emmons told the Boston Globe. “He kind of fit in with everyone. Not really close with anyone, but he was friendly.”
Emmons can’t believe she might have sat next to a terrorist in class.
“I am just a little shocked. I sat next to this guy. I joked with him. I laughed with him. I had class with him. It is a little crazy,” she said.