CAROLINE COUNTY, Va. (WTVR)—Caroline County law enforcement and county administration expressed dismay that Boston bomber suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body was buried in Doswell, Virginia.
A Richmond, Virginia woman brokered the burial after she heard about the picketing in Worcester, Mass. and she contacted the Islamic Funeral Services of Richmond. Mullen was reportedly sitting at a Starbucks, when, perturbed by the nation’s reaction to Tsarnaev’s burial and guided by the belief that “Jesus says [to] love our enemies,” she moved forward with her plan.
At an afternoon press conference, Caroline County Sheriff Tony Lippa said that he knows of “no Virginia law enforcement agency notified of the event.” In fact officials were informed through the media. There is no law that they would have to be notified-- in a standard practice-- but the agency wished they had been informed of the planned burial as they will now provide security at the grave, and they fear for public safety.
In fact, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Floyd Thomas, said when he first heard the news that he thought it wasn’t true. “I was shocked, to say the least,” said Thomas, because he thought the bomber suspect had already been entombed. as reported earlier in the week.
“We feel the same way most of the people in the county feel, most of the way America feels,” said Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Floyd Thomas. “We are actually—if you want to know how we feel—we’re very angry over the bombing.”
In a press release distributed earlier to the media earlier, County Administrator Charles M. Culley, Jr. said "we would much prefer to be associated with positive news reports from the national media, but unfortunately had no say in the matter.”
Sheriff Lippa is worried that the situation has become a “public safety” issue now.
He would not go into specifics of security at the Muslim cemetery in Doswell, the first all-Muslim cemetery in Central Virginia.
Lippa reminded the public that defacing property is a felony and trespassing after dark is a misdemeanor.
Click on the video above for the entire press conference.
