(NECN: Brian Burnell) - A small group of determined people who have loved ones buried at the Mt. Carmel Burying Ground in Hamden, Conn. are determined to keep Tamerlan Tsarnaev from being buried there.
It is possible the body of the accused Boston Marathon bomber could come to Connecticut after a Vermont man, Paul Keane, offered up two of his family plots. He says no matter how evil Tsarnaev might be, he's a human being who deserves a proper burial.
Dr. Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan is the resident Imam in Hamden.
"You can understand how they feel. That they don't want him there. They don't want him around. As a matter of fact, I would not like to associate with that type of person myself nor would this community here," Dr. Hasan says.
But, as a religious man, he also understands Keane's motives and believes they are honorable.
"If the Tsarnaev family were to accept this offer and come to you and say, would you help us do what needs to be done to bury him in that cemetery, what would you tell them? What advice would you give them? I would offer them whatever help that I can give them, but I understand this. If those in authority say that he should not be buried there, they don't want him there, then I would not insist," Dr. Hasan says.
In response to the controversy that his offer has stirred up, Keane has made an adjustment. He says on his Facebook page that if the Tsarnaev family turns him down - doesn't want the burial plots - he will offer them to the family of a fallen American soldier, a family that can't afford a proper burial.
