As horrific as the Boston Marathon Bombing was, it could have been even worse, according to court testimony. According to the Boston Herald, Trooper Robert McCarthy of the state bomb squad took the stand in Tsarnaev's trial on Wednesday, the 9th day of testimony. Among his chilling revelations: that Tsarnaev had abandoned three additional bombs.
Two bombs were left at the site of a police shootout; a third one was left in the driver's seat of the 2013 Mercedes SUV that Tsarnaev had stolen while fleeing police.
McCarthy said the bomb left in the Mercedes was in a clear, square Tupperware container packed with "two to three pounds" of blast powder and "multiple lengths of fuse taped together."
Prosecutors say that Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan engaged in a firefight with cops before Dzhokhar drove at officers in the Mercedes, running over his brother in the process. He abandoned the vehicle on a street in Watertown, Massachusetts. According to the Boston Globe, the SUV was riddled with bullet holes.
McCarthy testified that two other undetonated bombs were left at the scene of the firefight. One was made from a length of metal pipe, and the other was made from an pipe's elbow joint.
McCarthy said the elbow joint bomb was more dangerous.
"Rather than call it a pipe bomb, I call it an improvised grenade," he said, adding that the elbow bomb was very heavy. "It will not roll when it's tossed. It will stop in the spot where it's intended to be."
Tsarnaev's trial is a two-phase death penalty trial. In the first phase, jurors will determine whether he is guilty of more than 30 charges. In the second phase, they will determine whether Tsarnaev should be put to death.
