Who was Tamerlan Tsarnaev?

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the suspected and now dead Boston Marathon bomber, was a boxer who fought at the National Golden Gloves competition on May 4, 2009, and said, “I don’t have a single American friend. I don’t understand them.” Identified as a Muslim, he said, “There are no values anymore” and “people can’t control themselves.”

A YouTube channel, “Tamerlan Tsarnaev,” established on Aug. 17, 2012, includes the video “Allah Is the One” from MercifulServant.com (subscribed to two months ago), videos about skiing in Maine from the MaineSkiFamily’s channel (subscribed to three months ago), and videos from Islamiccenter3 (subscribed to four months ago).

A photo essay in 2009, “Will Box for Passport,” noted that Tsarnaev was a student at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and wanted to become an engineer. He left Chechnya with his family during the 1990s and lived in Kazakhstan before arriving in the United States as a refugee. He hoped to win fights, be selected for the U.S. Olympic team, and become a naturalized American.

Captions with the essay said unless Chechnya gained independence, Tsarnaev wanted to compete for the United States and not Russia. He did not drink or smoke anymore: “God said no alcohol.”

Other details: In the 2009 New England Golden Glove tournament of champions in Lowell, Mass., Tsarnaev (representing Lowell) fought Gerald Lee Lamour of Vermont, also a heavyweight. In Salt Lake City Tsarnaev boxed Lamar Fenner in the 201-pound class and lost.