Crime & Safety

FBI: Releasing Marathon Suspect Photos 'Best Decision'

An official said authorities wrangled over the decision to release the photos.

Releasing photos that led to the capture of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was the correct decision, even though a police officer was killed and another one was seriously injured, according to an FBI official.

Stephanie Douglas, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Division, said in a "60 Minutes" interview Sunday that the FBI "really had no choice" but to release the photos.

The blasts near the finish line of the marathon last year killed three people and injured about 260. After the FBI released photos of suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, they got into a shootout with police officers. Killed was MIT police Officer Sean Collier. MBTA police Officer Richard Donohue was severely wounded but recovered.

"Believe me, the death of Sean Collier is not lost on the FBI," Douglas told 60 Minutes. "But I think at the end of the day, given the facts as we knew them at the time, we made the best decision."

Douglas said the FBI wrangled with the decision to release the photos.

Tamerlan was eventually killed in a firefight with police. Dzhokhar was captured and is scheduled to go on trial in November.


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