Death Penalty Opponent Busted With Meat Cleaver At Tsarnaev Sentencing, Police Say

Death Penalty Foe Allegedly Brings Meat Cleaver To Tsarnaev Sentencing

A man armed with a meat cleaver was arrested Wednesday after telling police he drove his SUV into a restricted area outside the court where the Boston Marathon bomber was being sentenced to protest the death penalty.

A Honda SUV with no license plates driven by 24-year-old Patrick Carrerio skipped a security checkpoint and jumped a curb outside of the federal courthouse at 1:12 p.m. in South Boston, according to Boston Police Department statement. Officers found "what appeared to be a meat cleaver" during a search of Carrerio's Honda, according to police.

Carrerio was charged possessing a dangerous weapon, failing to stop for a police officer and disorderly conduct.

Carrerio told officers he "had driven to the courthouse to express his opposition and dissent with the death penalty," police said. "At no time" did Carrerio "use or threaten anyone" with the cleaver, police said.

Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, apologized Wednesday as he was formally sentenced to death for the 2013 attack on the Boston Marathon that killed three people.

Journalists tweeted a photo of a long-haired and bearded man in a V-neck T-shirt and jeans getting handcuffed with his arms behind his back.

At least one of Carrerio's friends showed Boston Metro what were described as recent, troubling text messages from Carrerio.

The FBI is investigating whether Carrerio has links to terrorists, according to NECN.

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