Student who discovered his friend was behind the Boston Marathon Bombings says it 'destroyed' him

A college student has opened up about discovering that his best friend was behind the devastating Boston Marathon Bombings ten years ago, admitting that it 'destroyed him'.

Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were discovered as the culprits behind the 2013 bombing, which killed three and injured almost 300 people.

After analysing CCTV and cell phone footage from the fatal incident, investigators were able to narrow the bombing down to two suspects - a man in a white cap and a man in a black cap.

Law enforcement officials released photos of the two suspects, asking for the public's help in identifying the men, who were considered to be 'armed and extremely dangerous.'

Youssef Eddafali, who had been best friends with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for years, didn't suspect for one second that the brothers were behind the bombing.

Speaking for Netflix's new three-part docu-series, American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing, he recalled the day the photos of the bombers were released to the public.

"I had a friend call me - it was, like, three in the morning.

"He texts me this picture of White Hat, Black Hat. He's like, 'Yo, does this not look like Dzhokhar?'

"And I'm like, 'First off, do you know the significance of you pointing your finger at him? Do you know what you're saying right now?' This is not Dzhokhar."

Netflix

Explaining his thought process, Youssef said: "We were lifeguards together.

"[Dzhokhar] was the captain of the wrestling team, the chill popular kid.

"It was so inconceivable that I convinced him that it wasn't him. "And then, the conversation ended like, 'Yeah, no, you're right. There's no way.'"

Youssef, who played basketball with Dzhokhar from a young age, didn't even realise that he was Muslim when he first met him.

"I remember every Friday, I would go to the Mosque... and I see Dzhokhar and it confuses me.

"Because I assumed Dzhokhar was a white kid from Boston. I sit next to him and I'm like, 'What are you... what are you doing here?'

"And he's like, 'Yeah bro, I've been Muslim my whole life! I just never thought it was, like, important.'

"I'm like, 'Bro! we could, like, chill! You know, we could do, like, Muslim things!'"

From that day, Youssef and Dzhokhar were best friends.

"I could relate with him on a level I couldn't before," he told cameras.

"He was humble, he was kind, he would give me five bucks to go to lunch, he got along with, like, everyone."

That's why it was so impossible for Youssef to believe that his friend could have anything to do with the bombing.

Netflix

But, just a few days after the devastating event, Dzhokhar and his older brother Tamerlan were identified as the suspects.

"Now, I have to live with the betrayal of knowing the same friend I cared about and trusted did what he did. And it destroyed me," said Youssef.

In the lead-up to the Boston Marathon bombing, Youssef did note that Dzhokhar had become a little distant, and was spending a lot more time with his brother.

"The last time we ended up meeting was a month before the bombing," Youssef recalled.

"We're about to go out, meet up with some friends. There was, like, two parties that night.

"And then he gets a call from his brother. Immediately after he hung up, he turns to us and says, 'Yo, bro, I gotta go.'

"We're like, 'You good? Everything good?' He's like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just family.'

"That was the last time I saw him."

Netflix

The day that Dzhokhar was finally captured, four days after the bombing, Youssef had painfully mixed emotions.

Dzhokhar had been hiding in a boat outside a home in Watertown when police zeroed in on him.

"We were watching the news for so long. The claustrophobia, the tension, it was a lot to deal with," Youssef admitted.

Dzhokhar was arrested that evening, and subsequently slapped with a death sentence, though this is currently going through an appeal.

Youssef, who had already been dealing with 'shame' surrounding his religious background ever since the 9/11 attacks, said that his former friend's actions 'brought him to the lowest point of his life.'

"I didn't know who I was anymore," he admitted. "I lost touch with the person I once was. Really, I felt let down and betrayed."

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