FBI search New Jersey home of sister of Boston bombing suspects

The FBI on Friday removed a computer from the New Jersey home of a sister of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. Police said she was cooperating with the investigation and was “heartbroken, surprised and upset,” though she told reporters she wasn’t sure the accusations against her brothers were true.

Police in West New York, who did not immediately release the woman’s name, cordoned off the three-story brick building across the Hudson River from New York City as federal agents remained inside.

Public records listed an Ailina Tsarnaev as living at the address.

The woman, speaking earlier through a crack in the door, told News12 New Jersey and The Star-Ledger that she is sorry for the families that lost loved ones “the same way I lost my loved one.”

“I’m hurt for everyone that’s been hurt,” she told the TV station and newspaper.

Her brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed overnight in a shootout with police outside Boston. Her younger brother remains at large.

“He was a great person,” the woman said of her dead brother. “I thought I knew him. I never would have expected that from him. He is a kind and loving man. The cops took his life away just the same way he took others’ lives away, if that’s even true. At the end of the day, no one knows the truth.”

She said she hadn’t seen him in a long time.

“I have no idea what got into them,” she said.

West New York Police Director Michael Indri confirmed that the woman speaking with the FBI was a sister of the bombing suspects. He said she was cooperating with the FBI.

“She’s heartbroken, surprised and upset like we all are,” Indri said.

A woman who described herself as a friend of Ailina Tsarnaev described a different relationship between the woman and the elder brother.

Vicki Colon, of Passaic, said the woman feared him because “he used to beat her.”

Colon said she met the two brothers during a visit to Massachusetts a couple years ago. She said the younger brother was very quiet.

The sister last spoke to Colon on April 6, Colon’s birthday. Colon said she saw a Facebook posting Thursday night that led her to believe the woman may not have known her brothers had been identified as suspects.

“It just said, ‘God is great, I love my family,’ basically,” Colon said.

Associated Press writer David Porter in Passaic, N.J., contributed to this report.