The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings remained in serious condition in hospital on Sunday, unable to speak due to injuries to his neck and tongue sustained while on the run, officials said.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation still was unable to interview Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, Boston police commissioner Ed Davis told CBS-TV. Boston mayor Thomas Menino said the authorities may never be able to speak to him.
The suspect was at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre while US attorney Carmen Ortiz, the federal prosecutor for the Boston area, was working on filing criminal charges, Mr Davis said.An announcement on charges could come later Sunday, he said.
Tsarnaev was shot in the throat and had tongue damage, said a source. “We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to question the individual,” Mr Menino told ABC-TV, but did not elaborate. Investigators were seeking a motive for the bombings and whether others were involved besides the ethnic Chechen brothers. The other identified suspect, older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a firefight with the police on Friday, in the middle of a dramatic 26 hours.