David Frank has commented that recent leaks concerning the gun purportedly owned by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friend Stephen Silva are a “game-changer,” as they could upgrade Dzhokhar’s role from stooge to instigator.

There is also concern about Dr. Bronson’s quoting of a rumor that Dzhokhar used this gun to rob drug dealers. The rumor was investigated by some MSM journalists, but was so flimsy that it never made it into news reports. However, Bronson’s quoting of it suggests  the defense is so rushed that they don’t have time to carefully proofread their motions. Equally troubling is Judge O’Toole’s determination to stick to the November trial date at all costs. This suggests he is cooperating with the prosecution’s strategy of “rush to convict before the defense is fully prepared.”

I don’t have anything new, but let’s keep the conversation going until Jane posts her report on Thursday’s Tsarnaev status conference. Since the Silva gun brings up the question of the Sean Collier shooting, I’ll reprise what we know about it.

The official story: The Tsarnaevs pulled off a bombing coup which Al Qaeda called “brilliant,” but they had no escape plan. They failed to get out of town on Tuesday. They failed to use the help of their terror cell to get to a safe hiding place on Thursday after they were identified. Instead, they embarked on a pointless crime spree which drew the attention of the entire BPD and virtually ensured they would be captured or killed.

Officer Collier was sitting in his car, parked in an alley between two MIT campus buildings. Allegedly: the Tsarnaevs ran across him in this out-of-the-way spot and decided to kill him in order to steal his gun. A bloody struggle ensued. Collier was shot five times at close range. The brothers tried and failed to get his gun out of his locked holster.

Stealing the gun? Police scanner reports quoted by B.Blake clearly indicate that Collier’s gun was NOT locked in his holster: “Please be advised that the officer’s weapon is also missing.” “Officer has been shot. The suspect is still at large with his weapon.” “Cambridge police just called in. They are advising that they just located the officer’s weapon.”

So much for the alleged motive. How about the bloody struggle? From S. Greene: “Danny never mentions blood on either brother.” From a comment on the Greene post: “Police communications included a BOLO for blood-drenched suspects. The next thing we’ll hear is that the brothers stopped for a wash and brush-up so as to look their best for the ‘carjacking.”

What were the brothers doing on the MIT campus? Why didn’t they arm themselves more completely before they decided to bomb the Marathon? Who knows?

What (allegedly) happened next? Tamerlan used the gun to carjack a van, and announced to the driver “I bombed the Marathon and I just killed a cop.” Tamerlan, oddly, was acting like the instigator. Maybe Dzhokhar “made him do it.” Dzhokhar followed the van in the Honda. They parked the Honda near Laurel and Dexter, then all hopped into the van and drove in circles for two hours. They ended up at the Shell station, where “Danny” escaped. 

Not a very difficult escape, to be sure. The Shell surveillance camera shows BOTH brothers strolling calmly out of the Shell store, having carelessly left their “hostage” unguarded. (When MSM reproduces this photo, they invariably crop Tamerlan out of it.)

Then according to LE: The brothers drove the van back to L&D to pick up the Honda. Discovering that they were being followed by a police car, Tamerlan stopped the van, got out and started shooting. 

Here we pick up the narrative in the “Too Many Guns” article cited by Jane. Numerous police, and others, showed up to participate in the Gunfight of the Century. “…some ‘self deployed,’ meaning they were volunteers, unknown men with guns who arrived unannounced in the middle of a shootout.”

“The only serious wound [to LE] was suffered by Richard Donohue, a transit cop with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.” Donohue was one of the first responders to the Collier shooting. And it appears he was not shot by the Tsarnaevs, but by friendly fire. As Russ Baker commented, “What are the odds?”

Many many shell casings were found at Laurel and Dexter, the vast majority of them from LE. The Ruger which allegedly killed Collier was also “found” at the scene; it’s supposed to be same one that Tamerlan threw away. I can picture “shell games” being played with this stuff to implicate the brothers in the Collier murder. (The FBI HAS been known to fake evidence in the past, e.g.  the Lockerbie case.)

Defense Doc. 235, filed March 28, 2014,  suggests the defense is thinking along the same lines. “On February 18, 2014, defense counsel specifically requested reports generated by MIT officers and personnel. The government responded that it had requested the additional incident reports related to the shooting of Officer Collier. To date, however, no reports have been received. The government should be ordered to produce the reports immediately …

“Defense counsel made the following requests: a list/index of all law enforcement weapons fired during the encounter at Laurel and Dexter Streets and at the 61 Franklin Street vicinity and report of any testing done in regard to those weapons; report(s) of and reports of investigations into shots fired on or near Oliver Road between Dexter and Adams Sts., Watertown; report(s) of any investigations conducted by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office (or any other law enforcement agency) into the shooting of MBTA Police Officer Richard Donahue.”

Eleven months after the fact, they didn’t have this basic info? “Stall the defense, rush the prosecution.” Or, extra time to intentionally conceal or obfuscate facts?

BTW, what’s the story on those unknown “volunteers” at the shootout scene?