(Trinidad Express) THE man who captured and handcuffed Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the end of a city-wide hunt last week, is a Trinidad and Tobago national now a police officer living in the United States.
Saro Thompson was credited with taking into custody terror suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as he attempted to hide in a boat behind a suburban home.
Tsarnaev’s brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who is believed to have masterminded the bombings, was killed hours before.
Thompson and members of the Transit Police SWAT team gave an account of the capture during a press conference on Monday.
Shortly after the story was carried on cable news networks, Thompson was recognised by his schoolmates at Presentation College, San Fernando, where he attended from 1991.
Many were surprised that Thompson had turned out to be a police officer, since he was described as quiet and unassuming.
Others were shocked that Thompson had been involved in the arrest of a man linked to one of the worst acts of terror on American soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But all were proud, said President of PREStige (the school’s alumni association), Steven Samlalsingh, who said Twitter and Facebook lit up as Thompson’s brother, Robin Thompson, shared the good news.
Samlalsingh said the college has had much to celebrate recently, with the appointment of past pupils Anthony Carmona to the Presidency, and past pupil Lt Commander Don Polo as his aide de camp.
Last week Monday, two bombs exploded near the finish line of the famed Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring almost 200 persons.
The identities of the suspects were unknown until law enforcement released their images last Thursday, sparking a fast moving series of events during which a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer, and a second officer, were wounded.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed and his brother escaped into a residential area of Watertown.
It was a home owner who tipped off police officers when he found blood on the boat.
According to an article in the Boston Globe newspaper, Thompson said that as officers approached the boat where the suspect was hiding last Friday night, they felt no fear.
“At a time like that, training kicks in. We knew we gotta get him out, get him down.” he said.
Thompson, who is originally of Dow Village, later visited a hospital to deliver the news to the police officer who was wounded during the firefight with terror suspects.
“We got him,” Thompson said he told fellow officer Richard Donahue.
According to the article, Donahue, 33, was injured during a shootout between the police and the suspects in Watertown early Friday morning, after Donahue and other transit officers joined in pursuing the suspects.
After the fire fight, transit officers, including Thompson, were part of the search for the suspect who remained at large, but were dismissed at 6.30 p.m., after authorities announced that they believed the suspect had escaped their perimetre.
Minutes later, the SWAT team was called back to the scene after the suspect was located.
Thompson said Tsarnaev had already indicated to law enforcement officers that he was willing to surrender.
However, he said officers were unsure whether the suspect had improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Thompson said at the press conference, “When we first started moving up to the boat, he was laying on the side of the boat. He was in and out of consciousness. When we got to about ten or 15 yards of him, he sat back up. We moved from behind the shield cover and we pulled him down and put the cuffs on him”.
The Express was told that both Thompson and his brother were pupils of Presentation College but emigrated to the US in 1994. Their father, Dr Robin Johnson, is deceased, and mother Merle Johnson is a nurse. Samlalsingh said, “We hope to host both Saro and the President at our upcoming annual reunion in early June, and at a gala event for the President later in the year”.
