AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation
This photo released Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a suspect that officials identified as
Dzhokhar is the younger brother of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was shot and killed in a gun battle with Boston police early Friday morning that also ended in the death of an MIT police officer.
An FBI official told the Los Angeles Times that Dzhokhar may have been wounded in the confrontation before escaping.
The 19-year-old is being referred to by authorities as "Suspect 2" and is identified in FBI-released surveillance footage as the man wearing a white hat at the marathon.
The brothers were "ethnic Chechens with ties to the Russian region," AP reports. Dzhokhar lived in the Russian city of Makhachkala for a brief time before moving to the United States, according to the AP.
Another report from CNN says that the Tsarnaev family lived in Kazakhstan before coming to the U.S., possibly in the early 2000s.
Dzhokhar was a registered student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the university confirmed. The campus closed down and the dorm where Dzhokhar lived was evacuated on Friday, SouthCoastToday.com reports.
A biology student at UMass Dartmouth told the paper that Tsarnaev was "quiet," although she did not know him well.
The father of the Tsarnaev brothers spoke to the Associated Press by telephone on Friday from Makhachkala.
"My son is a true angel," Anzor Tsarnaev told the the AP. He said Dzhokhar was a medical student in the United States and described him as an "intelligent boy."
Dzhokhar was a wrestler at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Mass, USA Today's Natalie DiBlasio reports. He was also honored as student athlete of the month.
A high school classmate told USA Today that Dzhokhar was a "funny, sweet, goofy kid."
According to a Cambridge government website, a high school senior named Dzhokhar Tsarnaev won a $2,500 scholarship from the city in 2011 to pursue higher education.
An aquatic coordinator at Harvard University told CNN that Dzhokhar was hired as a lifeguard for the university's pool about two and a half years ago.
According to Russian Facebook VKontakte, a page that bears the same name as the surviving suspect lists "career and money" as the account holder's personal priorities, and "Islam" as the member's religion.
The page says an individual named Dzhokhar was born on July 22 and that he speaks English, Russian, and the Chechen language “Nokhchiin Mott.”
Here are some translations from that page:
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's groups on Facebook: CHECHN's Everything about Chechnya and M&Ms
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) April 19, 2013
Under "Personal priority" Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lists "Career and money"
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) April 19, 2013
5 "noteworthy pages" on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Facebook: My religion is Islam among them and several humor pages.
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) April 19, 2013
Yearbook pic of Boston bombing suspect, given to me by fmr classmate. "He was quiet". twitter.com/Brynn4NY/statu…
— Brynn Gingras (@Brynn4NY) April 19, 2013
Meanwhile, for more on his dead older brother, see here.
Keep following this post for more biographical information.