Boston Bombings

Tamerlan Received Welfare Benefits

Up until last year.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev struggled financially, receiving welfare benefits for his family up until last year—when he became ineligible based on his income level, says the AP. The report sheds additional light on Tamerlan, whose uncle spoke out Tuesday to place blame for the attacks on a mysterious Muslim radical who he claims steered Tamerlan toward fundamentalism. “Somehow, he just took [Tamerlan’s] brain,” Tamerlan’s uncle Ruslan Tsarni said. The radical, known to the family only as Misha, pushed Tamerlan to give up boxing and studying music. Sources told The Boston Globe on Tuesday that Russian authorities contacted the U.S. “multiple” times about Tamerlan, including at least once after the FBI investigated his trip to Russia in 2011.