BOSTON — A carjacking victim on Thursday described his ride at gunpoint with the Boston Marathon bombers three days after the attack.
Dun Meng, a Chinese national who moved to the U.S. in 2009, testified in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial that Meng had left work late on April 18, 2013, when he pulled over to return a text message. A car pulled behind him, and a man got out and knocked on his passenger-side window. Meng said he lowered his window, and the man reached in, opened the door and jumped in.
“He point a gun to me — right to my head — he ask money first, ‘Where’s your cash?’ ” Meng said.
Meng said he later learned the man was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two brothers who had detonated bombs near the finish line of the marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260.
Meng said he told Tamerlan he had only about $40, and Tamerlan pulled the magazine out of his gun to show the bullets inside. Meng said Tamerlan asked him if he knew who committed the Boston Marathon bombing.
“He said, ‘I did it, and I just killed a policeman in Cambridge,’ ” Meng said.
Prosecutors said the Tsarnaev brothers shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier in a failed attempt to steal his gun.
After driving around for 20 or 30 minutes, Meng said, Tamerlan told him to pull over in Watertown, and a sedan pulled up behind them. Meng said Tamerlan helped a man in that car load items into Meng’s SUV. Meng identified the second man as Dzhokhar. Meng said Tamerlan drove his car to a bank machine, where Dzhokhar withdrew money from Meng’s account.
Meng said he decided to make his escape after Tamerlan pulled into a gas station, and Dzhokhar went inside to pay. Meng unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the car door and dashed into the street. The jury saw surveillance video of Meng running inside the gas station across the street, holding the door shut and begging the clerk to call 911.
In cross-examination by the defense, Meng confirmed that Tamerlan jumped in his car and threatened him with a gun. He said Dzhokhar barely spoke to him.
Tamerlan was killed by police April 19. Dzhokhar was arrested later that night.
Testimony is set to resume Monday.
