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Boston bomb suspects targeted New York City next, official says

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WASHINGTON -- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged with using a weapon of mass destruction in the Boston Marathon bombing, has told federal interrogators that he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, next planned to travel to New York City to set off another explosion, an official said Thursday.

The younger brother, arrested Friday evening and facing a potential death penalty case in the Boston bombing, told the interrogators about their New York plans through written questions in his hospital room in Boston, said a federal law enforcement source said who declined to be identified because of the evolving case.

They apparently planned to use some remaining explosives for New York. On Wednesday night, police in Boston recovered some fireworks believed tied to the Tsarnaev brothers that had been stashed in a clothing storage bin.

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Early in the investigation, authorities were worried that New York was a target based on what they were told by a man who was carjacked by the brothers after the manhunt began for their arrest. The man, who spoke little or no English, said he did overhear the brothers say the word “Manhattan,” and that prompted police at that time to ratchet up security alerts along the bridges and tunnels leading into New York City.

On Wednesday, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there was “ information that they may have attempted to come to New York to party” -- a euphemism for setting off another blast.

richard.serrano@latimes.com

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