Site of Boston attack
Site of Boston attackAFP photo

The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect is set to make his first court appearance Wednesday.

A crowd of bombing survivors and their loved ones are expected to gather at the Boston federal courthouse to see Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, arraigned on a 30-count indictment that charges him with using weapons of mass destruction and killing four people.

"I want to know what happened that day," said Liz Norden, whose sons, J.P. and Paul, each lost a leg in the April 15 explosions near the finish line.

"How can somebody do something to innocent people like that?", she said according to NBC News.

The hearing will mark Tsarnaev's first appearance in public since he was hauled bleeding from a boat, where he scrawled anti-American messages while hiding out from police who locked down the Boston area to hunt for him.

His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a shootout with police. Three people were killed in the bombing and more than 260 wounded.