Uncle arranging Boston bomb suspect's burial rites
By DENISE LAVOIEBy DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press?
?Ruslan Tsarni, left, uncle of killed Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, departs the Graham, Putnam, and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., as funeral director and owner Peter Stefan, right, walks him to his car, Sunday, May 5, 2013. Stefan has pleaded for government officials to use their influence to convince a cemetery to bury Tsarnaev, but so far no state or federal authorities have stepped forward. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Ruslan Tsarni, left, uncle of killed Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, departs the Graham, Putnam, and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., as funeral director and owner Peter Stefan, right, walks him to his car, Sunday, May 5, 2013. Stefan has pleaded for government officials to use their influence to convince a cemetery to bury Tsarnaev, but so far no state or federal authorities have stepped forward. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Police cars sit across from the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., Friday, May 3, 2013. Owner Peter Stefan confirmed his facility 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)
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)
In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, accepts the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship from Dr. Joseph Downes, right, in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, 26, who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 in the Boston Marathon Explosions and was seen in surveillance footage in a black baseball cap, was killed overnight on Friday, April 19, 2013, officials said. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun, Julia Malakie) MANDATORY CREDIT;
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) ? The uncle of a Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a gun battle with police arrived at a funeral home Sunday to arrange for his burial.
Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., and three other men met with Worcester funeral home director Peter Stefan. The men who accompanied Tsarni plan to wash and perform Muslim burial rites on the body of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Stefan said.
Tsarnaev, who had appeared in surveillance photos wearing a black cap and was identified as Suspect No. 1, died days after the April 15 bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others.
Stefan said he has received calls from people criticizing him and calling him "un-American" for being willing to handle Tsarnaev's funeral.
"We take an oath to do this. Can I pick and choose? No. Can I separate the sins from the sinners? No," he said. "We are burying a dead body. That's what we do."
A half dozen protesters gathered outside the funeral home Sunday holding signs and American flags and chanting "USA!" One sign read: "Do not bury him on U.S. soil." Several people drove by the funeral home earlier Sunday and yelled, including one man who shouted, "Throw him off a boat like Osama bin Laden!"
Stefan said he hasn't been able to find a cemetery in Massachusetts willing to take the body, but he has received offers to provide a grave and to contribute money toward the funeral expenses from people in other states. Stefan said he plans to ask the city of Cambridge, where Tsarnaev lived, to provide a burial plot, and if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state officials.
Stefan said Tsarnaev's uncle told him he is anxious to bury his nephew.
"They just want to get it over with. They want to get him buried," Stefan said.
Tsarni has denounced the acts that his nephews ? Tamerlan and younger brother Dzhokhar ? are accused of committing and has said they brought shame to the family and the entire Chechen ethnicity. The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents. Both parents returned to Dagestan last year.
Dzhokhar, 19, is in a prison hospital, facing a potential death sentence if convicted of the terrorism plot.
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