A tactical police photographer has released several photos of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, taken in the moments that the massive manhunt following the attack finally came to an end. Sgt. Sean Murphy, who has now been “relieved of duty” for leaking the images, said that he was outraged by the recent cover of Rolling Stone magazine featuring Tsarnaev, saying that putting a suspected terrorist on the cover of a popular culture magazine sends the wrong message. The police images show a bloody, disheveled and exhausted Tsarnaev surrendering to police as the red laser dot of a sniper rifle is aimed at his forehead.
Murphy, who emphasized that he acted alone releasing the photos, and does not speak for law enforcement officials, told Boston Magazine,
“The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine … Photography is very simple, it’s very basic. It brings us back to the cave. An image like this on the cover of Rolling Stone, we see it instantly as being wrong. What Rolling Stone did was wrong. This guy is evil” …
