WASHINGTON, April 24 (RIA Novosti) – Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects, could be arrested if she returns to the United States as she is expected to do this week.
“There is a warrant out for her arrest,” said a clerk at the Natick District Court in Natick, Massachusetts, during a phone conversation on Wednesday with RIA Novosti.
“If she gets stopped here or anywhere else in the state she could be arrested, or even anywhere in the US, it’s up to the officer to decide,” the clerk added.
According to the clerk, court documents show Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was arrested for shoplifting last year at a Lord & Taylor department store in Natick, after security workers called police. She was accused of stealing $1,600 worth of clothes from the store.
“They allege she had 8-to-10 dresses, and she went into a fitting room where she removed the security tags, ripping some of the material so the clothing could not be re-sold,” said Lt. Brian Grassey, spokesman for the Natick Police Department, in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“I don’t know what raised their suspicions but she was directly observed removing the sensor tags,” he added.
Grassey said Tsarnaeva was arrested on June 13, 2012 and arraigned the following day on one count of larceny and two counts of malicious damage to property.
Court documents show she had several pre-trial dates in 2012, but didn’t show up.
“She defaulted on Oct. 25 when she didn’t show up for trial, so there is a default warrant out for her arrest,” said the clerk.
Natick is on the Boston Marathon route, roughly 10 miles from the start of the race.
Her sons are suspected of having planted the homemade bombs which exploded at the finish line on April 15, killing three people and injuring more than 200.
The older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died in a shootout with police on Friday. A few hours later his younger brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was captured after a manhunt that shutdown much of Boston and its surrounding areas. He remains in a Boston hospital where he is being treated for injuries to his head, neck, legs and hand.
Dzhokhar has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, which could carry the death penalty.
A team from the US Embassy in Moscow spoke with the suspects’ parents in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan this week, and a police source tells RIA Novosti the parents have agreed to visit the United States to assist in the ongoing investigation.
The father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told RIA Novosti they are going to fly to the US on Thursday.
