'I don't have a single American friend': Photo essay titled 'Will Box For Passport' reveals profile of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Photo essay reveals suspected bomber's aspirations to compete for America in the Olympics if he is naturalised
The "black hat" Boston Marathon bombing suspect identified as Chechnyan-born Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was the subject of a photo essay taken some years ago in which he revealed: "I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them."
A keen boxer, Tsarnaev appears in a series of images, titled Will Box For Passport, taken by Johannes Hirn (but which since appear to have been removed from his website), as he prepared to take part in the National Golden Gloves competition at Salt Lake City.
The captions give insight into the suspect who was killed this morning during a police raid. They reveal that, at the time the photos were taken, Tsarnaev was studying at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and had aspirations to become an engineer.
They also reveal that Tsarnaev fled Chechnya to Kazakhstan with his family because of the conflict in the early nineties, before coming to America as a refugee.
The photos reveal that, despite living in the US for more than five years, he had trouble assimilating, and claimed not to have "a single American friend" and didn't understand "them".
Tsarnaev was representing New England in the heavyweight category at the competition and took a term off school to commit himself to training as a boxer.
The photo essay reveals the suspected bomber's hopes that he would be picked for the US Olympic boxing team. Tsarnaev is quoted as saying that he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia "unless his native Chechnya becomes independent".