Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Was Shot in Face, Say Doctors

Aug. 20, 2013 — -- Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received multiple life-threatening injuries, including a gunshot to the face before his capture, doctors revealed in grisly detail in newly unsealed court documents.

"He has multiple gunshot wounds, the most severe of which appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left face, lower face," Dr. Stephen Ray Odom, a trauma surgeon, told a court convened inside Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where the 20-year-old suspect was being treated three days after his arrest.

Odom described the shot to the suspected bomber's face as a "high-powered injury" that damaged his skull, vertebrae, ear, throat and mouth, according to court documents unsealed Monday. Tsarnaev also received "multiple gunshot wounds" to his arms and legs.

Tsarnaev, who is accused of planting two homemade bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon that killed three people and wounded 260, was given the pain killer Dilaudil. According to the doctor, he "definitely knows where he is" and was capable of answering questions, according to a report in the Boston Globe.

A U.S. District Court clerk told ABC News that the documents had been "inadvertently unsealed" prematurely and had since been placed back under seal.

Tsarnaev was found hiding in a boat on April 19 in Watertown, Mass., following a shootout with police that left his brother and suspected accomplice, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, dead.

Additional gunshots were heard after police discovered Tsarnaev's hiding place. Recently released photos from the time of his capture show the man surrendering, his face and hands covered in blood and a rifle's laser sight trained on his forehead.

Tsarnaev remains hospitalized and imprisoned at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Mass. At his last court hearing, he pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.