Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described as ‘unassuming’ and ‘normal’

People who knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have started to share their memories of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, calling him “unassuming” and “normal.”
Tsarnaev, the young man whom everyone knew as “Jahar,” was “a normal regular American kid,” said Ty Barros, 21, a former classmate at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.
He liked sports and listened to rap music with other kids hanging out in the Cambridge neighborhood around Norfolk Street, Barros said. ”He was a fairly popular kid, he was a fairly friendly nice kid,” Barros said. “I liked his personality.”
He said Jahar never talked politics or said much about the U.S., nor discussed the marathon.
“I would never assume he would have these types of feelings,” Barros said. “There must have been some really drastic changes in the time I haven’t seen him.”
George MacMasters, coordinator of aquatics at Harvard University, said he hired Tsarnaev as a life guard about two-and-a-half years ago, along with other high school students from Cambridge Rindge & Latin.
“I like to hire local youth,” MacMasters said. “Put’ em to work in the pool.”
MacMasters said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is still at large, was a good worker and got along well with the other lifeguards. “He seemed like a very quiet, unassuming young man.”
Larry Aaronson, a former teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, told the Boston Globe that he knew Tsarnaev. “If someone were to ask me what the kid was like, I would say he had a heart of gold,” he said. “He was as gracious as possible.”
Robin Young, a public radio host, tweeted that Tsarnaev had been a friend of her nephew, writing, “heart is broken. just confirmed, I know dzhokhar tsarnave, one of best freinds of my beloved nephew,who says he never in his life saw this. [sic]”