ON EDGE

Tamerlan Started Fight at Gym Before Bombing


Security cameras show brothers working out ahead of attack.

Security footage at the Wai Kru mixed martial arts center shows Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev working out with a friend at the Boston gym just three days before the Boston Marathon bombings. The older Tsarnaev brother, a Golden Gloves–ranked boxer was somewhat of a regular at Wai Kru, so the gym’s manager took notice when Tamerlan showed up on April 12 without the bushy beard he’d sported for about two years. The manager told CNN he decided not to ask Tamerlan why he’d shaved, anticipating a long-winded lecture from the typically opinionated and outspoken Muslim, but couldn’t avoid the dispute that ensued when the brothers were asked to take off their shoes—Dzhokhar complied while Tamerlan refused and started a fight. That altercation prompted the manager to request that Tamerlan be banned from the gym.