DOSWELL, Va. (AP) — The decision to bury Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a small Islamic cemetery in rural Virginia is angering some members of the area's Islamic community, who say they weren't consulted.
It's also worrying at least one neighbor who says she didn't even know she lived near a burial ground.
Tsarnaev was killed April 19 in a getaway attempt after a gun battle with police. His younger brother is in custody. Their uncle in Maryland took responsibilty for the body, and said his nephew was buried in Doswell, Virginia, with the help of a faith coalition.
But the imam of the Islamic Center of Virginia says his group was never consulted -- and that the burial was done with the help of a separate Islamic group. He says the "whole Muslim community" in the area is "furious" that it was done behind their backs. And he adds that it "makes no sense whatsoever" that Tsarnaev's body was buried in Virginia.
A woman who lives less than a quarter of a mile away (Jaquese Goodall) says she didn't know the cemetery was there. And she adds that she's worried because, in her words, "his people may come down here to visit and there will be a whole lot of problems from him being here." She asks, "If they didn't want him in Boston, why did they bring him all the way down here against our wishes?"
