• Boston suspects had plotted July 4 attack, investigators say

    New details are emerging on the suspects' mindset during the Boston bombing. Also this week, three friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested. They handed over Tsarnaev's laptop to the FBI and led investigators to discover a backpack belonging to the suspect which had been thrown away and then recovered. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

    By Pete Williams and Jeff Black, NBC News

    The brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombings originally planned to set off explosives on July 4 — but changed their minds and decided on Patriot’s Day, officials with knowledge of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s interrogation told NBC News.

    Investigators also now have a good idea of how and where the pressure-cooker bombs used in the attack were constructed. But they still are trying to determine where the components in the explosives came from.

    Officials say Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, dropped pressure-cooker bombs stashed in backpacks in crowds watching runners at the finish line of the marathon on April 15.

    Dzhokhar allegedly told his interrogators the weekend after he was arrested that he and his brother originally intended to set off their bombs somewhere on the Fourth of July, officials said.

    Investigators say they have recovered the accused Boston Marathon bomber's computer, as three of Tsarnaev's friends being held by police insist they will cooperate with the investigation. NBC's Jay Gray reports.

    But, according to the officials, Dzhokhar said that when the brothers finished the bombs sooner than they expected, they decided to stage the attack earlier, on Patriot's Day, a proud holiday in Boston that hosts the marathon, a Red Sox game and other festivities.

    Officials say the surviving suspect also said the bombs were built in the house of his brother, Tamerlan. Authorities had previously disclosed that explosive residue had been found there.

    And a backpack that officials say was snatched from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dorm room then thrown away by three of his friends before being recovered is providing some clues on the bombs.

    Federal agents recovered the backpack in the New Bedford, Mass., landfill. It contained fireworks tubes that had been emptied of their powder.

    According to the FBI, the found fireworks were from a store other than the Phantom Fireworks shop in Seabrook, N.H., which disclosed a purchase by Tamerlan Tsarnaev in February.

    The FBI was checking on sales with other dealers in the area.


    In addition, the FBI said the backpack contained a jar of Vaseline petroleum jelly.

    "Bombers use Vaseline as a binder and thickening agent,” an FBI investigator said. “They mix it with explosive powder in hopes of making the mixture a little more reliable."

    The use of Vaseline is not mentioned in the al Qaeda online magazine that investigators believe the brothers used as a blueprint to make their bombs, but it is widely discussed elsewhere on the Internet.

    Authorities say the three friends — who have been hit with obstruction of justice and lying charges — also took Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop computer from his dorm room but did not throw it away and have since given it to the FBI.

    Meanwhile the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev was moved to a funeral home on Thursday evening at the request of family members, according to the Massachusetts Medical Examiner’s Office.

    Soon after receiving the body, the funeral home must file a death certificate, which would make public Tsarnaev’s cause of death.

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a firefight with police in the early morning hours of April 19 in the Boston suburb of Watertown. His precise cause of death, however, has remained unknown, since a death certificate or autopsy results have not been made public.

    The name of the family members who requested the release of the body and the funeral home were not released.

    Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in a prison hospital awaiting trial on terrorism charges.

    He has told investigators the brothers acted alone in concocting the deadly plot, and planted the bombs to defend Islam after the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, law enforcement officials told NBC News.

    Related:

    Who's who in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation

    This story was originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 7:13 PM EDT

  • Who's who in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation

    By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

    More details about the Boston Marathon bombing emerged Wednesday — two and a half weeks after the attack killed three people and wounded more than 200 — when two college friends of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were charged with removing a backpack and a laptop from his dorm room and another was charged with lying about it to the feds.

    The laptop was turned over to the FBI, one of the friend's lawyer said, and a backpack containing deconstructed fireworks was ultimately recovered from a landfill. The friends also revealed that Tsarnaev has boasted that he knew how to make a bomb about a month before the attack.

    Now, as the pool of evidence against Tsarnaev grows, so does the list of people related to or involved in the case. The friends — college classmates Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos — are only the most recent names to be added to a list that includes family members, a boxing coach, law enforcement officials, a car hijacking victim, a mechanic and of course the victims killed April 15: Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Liu. 

    Here is a guide to the many people involved in the Boston Marathon bombing case, and what we know (and don’t) about them.

    THE SUSPECTS

    The Lowell Sun & Robin Young via AP

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19

    Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Naturalized American citizen of Chechen descent and the sole surviving suspect in the attack, recovering in a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts. He was injured in a firefight with Watertown, Mass., police three days after the bombing, and was captured in a boat parked in a Watertown backyard. Investigators say he told them that he and his brother acted alone and carried out the attack to defend Islam after the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev: Older brother of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was killed in the firefight in Watertown — though how he died, from police fire or from being run over by his brother, is not clear. He was a legal permanent resident of the United States and a competitive boxer who traveled to Russia for six months in 2012. Russian authorities asked the U.S. for information about him twice in 2011, and U.S. investigators found no sign of terrorist activity. U.S. investigators say the Russians never answered their request for more information on why they were seeking intelligence.

    THE FAMILY

    Reuters, AP, Getty Images

    Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, Anzor Tsarnaev, Katherine Russell and Ruslan Tsarni

    Zubeidat Tsarnaeva: Mother of the Tsarnaev brothers. She has insisted that the two are being framed. Russian authorities have told American investigators that they captured a conversation between her and Tamerlan Tsarnaev in which the pair discussed jihad. She was placed in a U.S. terror database in the fall of 2011, according to a counterterrorism official.

    Anzor Tsarnaev: Father of the Tsarnaev brothers. He was an attorney in Russia, then worked as an auto mechanic in the United States after the family emigrated a decade ago. He has told NBC News that he has brain disease and returned to Russia to die. He also insists his sons are innocent: “You could kill me,” he said, “but I would never believe they had anything to do with this.”

    Katherine Russell: American widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the mother of his young daughter. She returned to her family in Rhode Island after the blasts and has met with the FBI. As investigators try to determine who else may have handled the pressure cookers that contained the bombs, they have taken DNA samples from Russell's home. At least one pressure cooker had a woman’s DNA on it, an official said.

    Ruslan Tsarni: Uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers, living in Maryland. First became known hours after the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, when he gave an emotional press conference outside his home in which he said that the brothers were “losers” who brought shame to Chechens.

    Zahara Tsarnaev: Three-year-old daughter of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Katherine Russell.

    THE FRIENDS

    Vkontakt

    Azamat Tazhayakov, left, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

    Azamat Tazhayakov: College friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. From Kazakhstan, he is 19 and in the United States on a student visa. He was charged Wednesday with plotting to remove items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room, including a laptop and a backpack containing fireworks.

    Dias Kadyrbayev: College friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He is also 19 and in the United States on a student visa from Kazakhstan, and was charged Wednesday with plotting to remove items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room. He recognized Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from video from the bombing scene and texted him about it, court papers say. The papers say Tsarnaev texted back: “lol.”

    Robel Phillipos: College friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He is an American from Cambridge, Mass., and was charged with lying to investigators.

    “Mischa”: Also spelled in some accounts as “Misha.” Described by Tsarni, the uncle, as a friend from the United States who may have radicalized Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tsarni told NBC News that Mischa presented himself as an “exorcist” who specialized in “removing demons from people’s bodies.” Investigators later downplayed Mischa’s role in the story.

    OTHERS WHO ENCOUNTERED THE SUSPECTS

    John Curran: Former boxing coach of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He remembered Tsarnaev as a gifted athlete and respectful, and said it was “mind-blowing to think” that Tsarnaev might have been behind the attack.

    Gilberto Junior: Cambridge auto mechanic who said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev brought a car to the shop during the week between the bombing and the capture. Junior said Tsarnaev was biting his fingernails and shaking. He told NBC affiliate WJAR: “He said he wanted it right now. I said I haven't even started working on the car. He says, ‘I don’t care. I don’t care. Right now. Give me the keys.’ He took the keys, got the car out of the parking lot and left.”

    David Henneberry: Homeowner and boat enthusiast who lives in Watertown, Mass. When authorities lifted their order for people in the Boston area to stay in their homes, late on April 19, he went out for a smoke and noticed his boat, parked beside the house, didn’t look right. It turned out to be where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding.

    THE CARJACK VICTIM

    “Danny”: Chinese entrepreneur who authorities say was carjacked by the marathon bombing suspects on the night of April 18, and has concealed his identity in media interviews in recent days. He told NBC News that he made his move to escape at a gas station, when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left to pump gas. Tamerlan Tsarnaev tried to grab him as he lunged out of the car, he said. “I think I was really lucky,” he told TODAY. “God was with me.”

    THE OFFICERS

    MIT via Getty Images, MBTA via AP

    MIT campus police officer Sean Collier, left, and MBTA transit police officer Richard Donahue

    Sean Collier: A campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was shot dead in his patrol car the night of April 18 — the beginning of the wild sequence of events that led to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capture and Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s death, authorities say. He was known for his ability to make foreign students at MIT feel comfortable.

    Richard Donohue: Transit officer severely injured in the firefight in Watertown. In a message Wednesday to well-wishers, he said that he had “almost no blood and no pulse” when he was taken to the hospital but believes he will fully recover. He said that a bullet will probably remain lodged in his leg, but he joked that it should only cause pain for his wife: “I will be using it to get out of things such as mowing the lawn, doing laundry and painting the deck.”

    THE AUTHORITIES

    AFP - Getty Images, Getty Images, AP

    Richard DesLauriers, left, Thomas Menino and Deval Patrick

    Richard DesLauriers: Plainspoken special agent in charge of the Boston office of the FBI. A day after the attack, he vowed: “We will go to the ends of the earth to find the suspects responsible for this despicable crime.” Two days later, he released the photos that started a manhunt for the men later identified as the Tsarnaev brothers.

    Thomas Menino: Mayor of Boston, affectionately known as “Mumbles” for his speaking style. “This is Boston,” he said at a prayer service three days after the attack. “A city with the courage, compassion and strength that knows no bounds.”

    Deval Patrick: Governor of Massachusetts. Issued the April 19 order for people in and around Boston to stay in their homes while authorities hunted for the suspects. He told “Meet the Press” the following weekend that it was important that civic rituals like the marathon go on, and pledged that it will be bigger than ever. “So many acts of kindness and — and grace shown to victims and to others in the course of this,” he said. “This has been just a really beautiful thing to behold.”

    THE MARATHON VICTIMS

    AP, Campbell family

    Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu

    Martin Richard: Eight-year-old boy killed near the marathon finish line. He was remembered as soft-spoken and sweet, and was pictured in a heartbreaking photo from school holding a poster that said “No More Hurting People.”

    Krystle Campbell: Restaurant manager killed in the attack. Remembered by President Barack Obama this way at the prayer service: “Those who knew her said that with her red hair and her freckles and her ever-eager willingness to speak her mind, she was beautiful, sometimes she could be a little noisy, and everybody loved her for it.”

    Lingzi Lu: Boston University graduate student killed in the attack. She was watching the race with two friends, and the day before had learned that she passed the first half of her master’s degree exams. The chairman of the BU math and statistics department recalled: “She’s a very bright young scientist. Enthusiastic, very bubbly, talkative. Her friends are going to miss her deeply.”

    Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News contributed to this report.

    This story was originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 4:20 AM EDT

  • Tweeting police chatter creates confusion over Boston suspect

    AP

    This combo of photos released by the FBI Friday April 19 shows what the FBI is calling suspects number 1, left, and suspect number 2, right, walking through the crowd in Boston on Monday, April 15, 2013, before the explosions at the Boston Marathon.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    As authorities closed in on the Boston Marathon bombing suspects -- one of whom was killed during a violent shootout in Boston's Watertown suburb early Friday -- Twitter and other social media outlets lit up with outtakes from police scanner reports, including a moment when eavesdropping tweeters heard the name of a missing Brown University student come over the airwaves in conjunction with the Monday attacks.

    "Police on scanner identify the names of #BostonMarathon suspects in gunfight, Suspect 1: Mike Mulugeta. Suspect 2: Sunil Tripathi," read the most retweeted of the tweets, from the hacker group Anonymous. The post was retweeted nearly 3200 times.

    But on Friday morning, it was certain: Tripathi was not involved with the bombings at all. Neither was the other named referenced. Authorities had identified the suspects as brothers with the last name Tsarnaev. Dzhokar, 19, was still wanted; his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, was dead after a night of violence that included the shooting to death of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, robbing a 7-Eleven, car-jacking a Mercedes SUV and injuring a Boston transit police officer.


    In the age of live streaming audio and fast tweets, amateur sleuths can spread police scanner chatter -- which is just that, chatter -- more quickly than ever. But the dissemination of information comes with a risk: endangering law enforcement or the public.

    "The last thing we want to become are reporters for the fugitive,"  Clint Van Zandt, former FBI profiler and NBC criminal analyst, said. "That's what I think people who tweet and post have to be careful of in the extreme and worst-case scenario. Are they giving information that would give aid and comfort to a killer? If you ask yourself that question and the answer is no, then go ahead and post it." 

    Boston police mentioned Tripathi and the other less-known name on their scanner just before 1 a.m. Friday morning, about two hours after law enforcement officials first encountered the suspects they had been hunting since Monday's attack.

    Missing student's family 'staggered' by false accusation

    AP

    This undated photo released by Brown University shows Brown University student Sunil Tripathi, who was last seen in the Brown campus area on Saturday morning, March 16, 2013 in Providence, R.I. For a few hours, social media lit up with reports that Tripathi was mistakenly identified as one of the Boston Marathon suspects.

    Prior to the bombings, Tripathi's disappearance was reported to be a possible suicide. It's unclear why his name and Mulugeta's came up on the police scanner, but some on Twitter posted side-by-side photos of Tripathi and one of the Boston marathon suspects who had been seen on surveillance wearing a white hat. 

    "Is there any doubt that Suspect #2 on the run is Sunil Tripathi?" wrote one, @HonestyInGov, comparing Tripathi's dark curly hair and thin frame to that of the suspect's.

    Misinformation is not the only danger. As of Friday morning, nearly 83,000 were simultaneously streaming a live audio of Boston's police scanner from a single website, broadcastify.com. Listening to unfiltered feeds of Boston's police, fire, and emergency personnel comes with a responsibility for those people, says Van Zandt, the former FBI profiler.

    Because the Boston suspects are believed to have been in the U.S. since 2002 or 2003, "they may well be subscribing to these blogs and tweets, and that gives them inside information," he said.

    He added, though, that even broadcasting a live raid on television or cable can give away information to suspects, who could be watching their own search play out live.

    "I've seen situations where the bad guys sit inside of a house or building, see which way the cops are coming, then start shooting from inside the door," he said. "Every time I talk on TV, I think the bad guy is listening. I think, what do I want him to hear? I keep trying to get a guy to surrender."

    Related content:

    'Dedicated officer' gunned down by Boston Marathon suspects at MIT

    Profile of suspects in Boston Marathon bombing

    Nearly 1 million told to stay indoors, transit canceled

    Massive manhunt for 2nd suspect after 1st one killed 

    Photos from Bostonians locked down amid terror hunt 

     

  • Boston transit shut down, nearly 1 million sheltering in place amid terror hunt

    All Boston mass transit was suspended Friday, and the Watertown area was in lockdown until further notice as police hunted for the marathon bombing suspect.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The entire city of Boston was put on lockdown Friday morning by the Massachusetts governor as police searched for the second of two men believed to have been involved in the marathon bombings earlier this week.

    Gov. Deval Patrick said people should shelter in place as authorities engaged in a “massive manhunt” – an extraordinary order that affected nearly one million people.

    The second suspect was shot and killed.

    Police searched the Watertown neighborhood door to door on foot and in patrol cars early Friday morning. Residents were asked to call 911 if anyone other than police came to doors in the neighborhood.

    All services on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority were suspended authorities announced earlier on Friday.

    All Boston Public School activities were canceled. All city employees were told to stay in place and not come to work. If they are already at work, they have been asked to stay in place.

    Trial courthouses and offices in Cambridge, Brighton, Newton, and Waltham were closed until further notice. Jurors for courthouses at the Suffolk Superior Court and Brooke Courthouses were told to stay home.

    People waiting for buses or other transit services should head home and stay there, police said earlier on Friday. No vehicular traffic was being allowed in or out of Watertown, where police engaged in a shootout overnight with men armed with explosives. A no-fly zone was instituted over the Watertown area, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.

    Designated portions of the MBTA system might open up again later on Friday, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency undersecretary Kurt Schwartz said.

    All Amtrak service coming into and departing from Boston's South Station was delayed as a result of police activity and Amtrak service was suspended between Boston and Providence, R.I. before all area service was suspended indefinitely around 11 a.m.

    Logan Airport officials told NBC News early Friday morning that the airport was open and operating under heightened security.

    Megabus suspended at least ten buses traveling between Boston and New York and at least three traveling between Boston and New Haven, Conn. All Peter Pan and Lucky Star bus line services too and from South Station were suspended.

    Police said at a press conference that all of Norfolk Street in Cambridge had been shut down early on Friday, and media were warned to leave the area.

    Businesses were asked to remain closed. Harvard University announced in a statement on its website that it was closed. Classes were canceled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where a campus police officer was shot and killed. Students at Boston College were told to "remain indoors" and classes were canceled.

    Emerson College tweeted that the school was closed until further notice: “Stay at home and where you are.” Boston University said its police were on patrol on campus. A BU graduate student was among the three killed by the bombing on Monday.

    "Search for armed suspect continues in Watertown," the Boston Police Department tweeted. "Residents reminded to remain indoors. All vehicle traffic suspended."

    Related:

    Profile of suspects in Boston Marathon bombing

    Nearly 1 million told to stay indoors, transit canceled

    Massive manhunt for 2nd suspect after 1st one killed

    Photos from Bostonians locked down amid terror hunt 

    In a video posted to YouTube you can hear the firefight between two suspects and authorities in Watertown, Mass.

    This story was originally published on Fri Apr 19, 2013 6:00 AM EDT

  • Family member: Former Texas official is 'prime suspect' in prosecutors' slayings

    View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.

    By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A former Texas official jailed on charges of making a terroristic threat is a "prime suspect" in the slaying of two Kaufman County prosecutors, one of his family members told NBCDFW.com.

    Lm Otero / AP

    The family of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, comfort each other during their funeral services in Wortham, Texas, on April 5.

    Eric Williams, 46, who is being held on $3 million bond, lost his job as Kaufman County justice of the peace last year after he was convicted of felony theft for taking computer monitors from a public building. Assistant district attorney Mark Hasse, who was the first of the local authorities slain, prosecuted that case, Reuters reported.

    Hasse, 57, was gunned down in daylight Jan. 31 in the Kaufman town square, near the county courthouse. Three months later, the county’s district attorney, Mike McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were shot to death at their home in Forney, Texas. McLelland, who had publicly vowed to find Hasse’s killer, was fired at 20 times and his wife once, according to a federal source.

    The three killings rocked the small town and caused concern among prosecutors in the region. Theories about motives behind the killings have included retaliation by white supremacist groups and Mexican drug cartels, federal prosecutors said.

    Kaufman County Sheriff via AP

    Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot and killed Jan. 31 as he left work in Kaufman, Texas.

    Attention turned to Williams after his arrest early Saturday.

    Williams had told NBCDFW.com that he had no role in the death of Hasse and that he had nothing to hide.

    More news from NBCDFW.com

    A former police officer, Williams said he was contacted by investigators just hours after McLelland and his wife were found dead.

    “I’ve cooperated with law enforcement,” Williams said. “I certainly wish them the best in bringing justice to this incredibly egregious act.”

    Williams said he met with the agents at a restaurant, where they conducted a test for gunpowder residue on his hands. He also turned over his cellphone along with his wife’s, Williams said. The investigators gave the phones back to him on Sunday.

    View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.

    “I know I didn’t do anything,” Williams said. “I know where I was.”

    On Sunday, Kaufman County Sheriff's Department Lt. Justin Lewis told NBCDFW.com:

    "Mr. Williams has not been charged with any murder (no one has been charged for the murders) and we have not named any suspects, prime suspects, or persons of interest in the case. The investigation continues and all leads and tips continue to be worked.

    Reuters contributed to this report.


  • Six percent of pursuit suspects escape California police

    View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

    By Gordon Tokumatsu and Samantha Tata, NBCLosAngeles.com

    A man who led police in California on a chase from Claremont to Pacoima Monday afternoon was still at large more than 24 hours later, a situation that police say represents a sliver of chases that end with the suspect’s successful escape.

    More often than not, police say, officers eventually take down a pursuit suspect. About 6 percent of pursuit suspects escape the blaring squad cars, police and media helicopters and, sometimes, K-9 units, according to data that includes all California law enforcement agencies, NBCLosAngeles.com reported.

    In 2010, there were 5,183 pursuits and of those, 341 suspects fled on foot and were not arrested.

    Out of the 5,508 pursuits in 2011, 348 suspects escaped on foot. According to LAPD, that escape rate is “pretty good.”

    Some notable pursuit suspects have tried to hide in plain sight.

    Read more from NBCLosAngeles.com


    In 2004, a man led police on a chase from Simi Valley to the Beverly Center in Hollywood where he disappeared among the shoppers before finally being caught.

    The next year, a pursuit suspect ditched his motorcycle at the Glendale Galleria and blended in with the crowd.

    Monday’s pursuit suspect appeared to blend into the brush. The chase began at about 4:45 p.m. in the Arcadia area when the driver of a dark-colored truck failed to stop for officers as part of a narcotics investigation.

    Disappeared in trees
    The driver barreled down freeways at times reaching speeds in excess of 80 mph before transitioning onto surface streets where he circled neighborhoods in Arleta and Pacoima for nearly an hour.

    After driving into a dead-end alley in Pacoima, the driver jumped out of the vehicle, scaled several fences and seemed to disappear among the trees in residents’ backyards.

    By Tuesday afternoon, the man had managed to evade officers for more than 24 hours. Still, investigators say evidence left behind in the vehicle and two arrested passengers make them confident they’ll catch the driver eventually.

    A man and a woman jumped out of the moving truck during the pursuit and were subsequently arrested. The woman hopped out while the truck was travelling under a canopy of trees.

    More content from NBCNews.com:

    Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

     

  • Fellow activists express disbelief at arrest of NATO summit bomb plot suspects

    Michael Towson

    Photo of bomb plot suspect Brent Betterly, 24, taken by a fellow Occupy protester in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

    By Thomas Francis, Special to msnbc.com

    Friends of three activists charged with plotting to hurl firebombs during the NATO Summit in Chicago reacted for the most part with disbelief Sunday, saying that the arrests appear to be an effort to undermine peaceful protest.

    Brent Betterly, 24, Brian Jacob Church, 20, and Jared Chase, 24, were charged Saturday with a terrorist conspiracy to firebomb four Chicago police stations, the home of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and President Barack Obama’s local campaign headquarters.

    Stephanie Auguiste, a 25-year-old from Hollywood, Fla., met all three of the alleged bombers through Occupy Fort Lauderdale, a Florida offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. She said the police description of the trio as violent anarchists didn’t match the young men she knew.

    Courtesy Stephanie Auguiste

    Stephanie Auguiste, 25, met all three of the alleged firebomb plotters through Occupy protests in Florida.

    She said that when she spoke with Betterly by phone last week about his time in Chicago, “He was telling me how local police officers were harassing them a lot and how they were pretty violent toward protesters. “ Betterly was “shocked” by the aggressive tactics but didn’t give Auguiste any indication that he was planning to strike back with force, she said.  

    Auguiste also said she found it hard to believe that Church -- who she knew by his middle name, Jacob -- is the same person described in charging documents as remarking about the sight of a “cop on fire.” Rather, she remembers Church as a soft-spoken artist who liked making still-life sketches and opposed the National Defense Authorization Act on constitutional grounds.

    “He’s not the kind of person who had the desire to commit violent acts toward anyone,” Auguiste said of Church. “He believed in peaceful protest.”

    Both Church and Betterly had lived in South Florida. Their friend, Chase, was from New Hampshire. Auguiste said she only met him once but found him to be “extremely friendly, very warm.”

    Chase and Betterly have had brushes with the law. According to a Reuters report, Chase was charged with attempt to commit assault and reckless endangerment in June 2003, after he pulled a knife in a fight with another man. The report also detailed an incident a month later where Chase was in another fight, after which he hit a man with his car. The man wasn’t injured, but Chase was reportedly found guilty of assault.

    (Chase’s uncle, Michael Chase of Westmoreland, N.H., told the Union-Leader newspaper that his nephew had only become politically active when the Occupy Wall Street protests bloomed. Of the charges, he said, “Seems outrageous and completely out of character for him. … He’s no angel. He’s not happy with the economy. Nobody is.”)

    Last October Betterly was charged for burglary of an unoccupied structure, grand theft and criminal mischief when after a night of drinking, he and two friends broke into an Oakland Park, Fla., school to swim in the pool, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Those felony charges are still pending. 

    Olivia Ferguson

    Olivia Ferguson, 36, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said she believes the charges against Betterly "about as much as I believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy."

    Olivia Ferguson, 36, said she often shared a tent with Betterly on the plaza adjoining the Fort Lauderdale City Hall during the Occupy protests. An electrician, Betterly would sometimes visit the encampment overnight after having worked 16 hours that same day, she said.

    Also by this author

    Florida brothers' 'pill mill' operation fueled painkiller abuse epidemic

    “I believe Brent is a terrorist about as much as I believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy,” said Ferguson, from Fort Lauderdale. Recalling Betterly’s fondness for drinking, she believes that the home-brewing kit allegedly being used to make Molotov cocktails was probably just for making beer. Recalling his blond dreadlocks and goofy charm, Ferguson said she gave Betterly the nickname “Spicoli,” after Sean Penn’s party hearty character in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

    At one Occupy Fort Lauderdale meeting in October led by Ferguson and Betterly, a man in the group spoke up to advocate more forceful forms of protest – spray-painting and property destruction. “Brent and I said absolutely not,” Ferguson said. “We were totally against that.”

    Another Occupy activist, Mike Howson, 25, said he was “really surprised” to see Betterly’s name surface in connection with a terrorist act. “Like most of us, there were political things you’d bitch about, but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would actually go through with something like that.”

    Michael Howson

    Mike Howson, 25, of Sunrise, Fla., said Betterly "didn't seem like the kind of guy who would actually go through with something like that."

    Howson, who resides in Sunrise, Fla., remembered Church being more reserved than the outgoing Betterly-- the type who “observes before he interacts with people.”

    One activist who met Betterly and Church in Florida, and spoke about them on condition of anonymity, was not as surprised as their other fellow protesters, saying they were more inclined than most to push the limits of peaceful protest, 

    “Jacob (Church) was immature and he was angry -- that’s a dangerous combination,” the activist said. 

    The same activist was more surprised that Betterly was implicated in the plot, but recalled his increasing frustration when the Fort Lauderdale movement cleared out its camp in December.

    “He went to Washington, D.C. for that national Occupy convention,” said the activist. “He then stayed near McPherson Square, and I can only surmise that he became somewhat radicalized by people he met there, because when he was here he was very much committed to nonviolence.”

    facebook.com

    Evan Rowe said suspect Brent Betterly "didn't seem to have a coherent ideological motivation, but he was tactically eager to pursue actions which might get him arrested in the pursuit of the Occupy cause."

    Evan Rowe, 34, who met Betterly through Occupy Fort Lauderdale, answered questions via email. “Brent was always super-eager and hard core,” he said. “He didn’t seem to have a coherent ideological motivation, but he was tactically eager to pursue actions which might get him arrested in the pursuit of the Occupy cause.”

    In Rowe’s opinion, the arrests were a “public relations exercise” by law enforcement agencies that need to invent sophisticated terrorist plots to justify their out-sized budgets, he said.

    In a statement to reporters Saturday, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said that the investigation of the NATO bombing plot had been going on for weeks and that the Chicago Police detectives were assisted by the FBI and U.S. Secret Service. Alvarez called the men “domestic terrorists” who had come to Chicago “to hurt people.”

    Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the National Lawyers Guild, which is representing the three accused bombers, said Sunday that prosecutors have yet to show evidence to support police claims of terrorist acts. “This is a direct attempt to stifle protest and to turn the public opinion against peaceful protesters.”

    Defense attorneys hope to learn more about the state’s case at a court hearing Tuesday. “We strongly believe that undercover cops in this case were manufacturing crimes,” said Hermes. “They were provoking these guys to do things that they would not have otherwise done -- and it’s not even clear that they did engage in any criminal activities.”

    Hermes said that the same two undercover cops who busted Betterly, Chase and Church were behind the bust of Sebastian Senakiewicz and Mark Neiweem, both of Chicago. Senakiewicz was charged with falsely making a terrorist threat while Neiweem stands accused of attempted possession of an explosive device. Police have said the two plots were unrelated.

    Sunday afternoon, thousands of protesters marched from Jackson Drive and Columbus Drive, near Lake Michigan, to McCormick Place, the setting for the NATO Summit. Some 60 countries are sending delegations to the event, where diplomats are discussing the war in Afghanistan and missile defense in Europe.

    There were reports of clashes between protesters and police at the conclusion of the march, but it appears that the demonstration was largely peaceful.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook