Prosecutor: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Placed Bomb Directly Behind 8-Year-Old Victim

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev deliberately placed pressure-cooker bombs filled with nails and ball bearings behind a row of children, said prosecuting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb.

“His goal that day was to kill and maim as many people as possible. He pretended to be a spectator but had murder in his heart,” said Weinreb in his opening statement Wednesday.

The bomb’s explosion ripped 8-year-old Martin Richard’s arms from his body, causing him to hemorrhage nearly all of the blood in his body, according to The Daily Mail. Richard’s mother could not see her son in his dying moments, having been blinded in one eye by shrapnel.

The child’s parents wept silently in the courtroom as their son’s excruciatingly painful death at the hands of Muslim immigrants was recounted for the jury.

“The purpose of that kind of bomb is to shred flesh, shatter bone, set people on fire and cause people to suffer painful deaths,” Weinreb said.

Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 21 and 26, blew up American civilians to avenge Muslims killed by U.S. military action in Islamic countries, he continued. The defense, led by U.S. Attorney Judith Clarke, argues that the now-deceased Tamerlan, killed in a police chase after Dzhokhar ran him over and dragged him 50 feet, “self-radicalized” and Dzhokhar followed his lead.

The blasts planted by the Tsarnaev brothers, cruelly calculated to shred the legs of American athletes, killed three and wounded 216 on April 15, 2013. Media commenters quickly blamed “right wing extremists” for slaughtering innocents to “make a statement,” but the actual statement Tsarnaev scrawled on the inside of a boat praised Allah and the rise of the “ummah” or Islamic nation.

Tsarnaev faces life in prison or the death penalty.

Email Katie at kmchugh@breitbart.com.