The widow of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is `` doing everything she can to assist with the investigation , '' of the Boston Marathon bombing , attorney Amato DeLuca said in a statement Tuesday . Katherine Russell last saw her husband Thursday , just hours before he died in a gun battle with police , according to a source close to the family . She was handing off her 2-year-old daughter to stay with him while she went to work , the source said . The FBI wants to interview Russell about her husband , but for now , agents only have been able to talk to her lawyer . `` She knew nothing about it at any time , '' DeLuca told CNN 's Chris Lawrence , referring to the bomb plot . Russell , 24 , learned through news reports that the father of her daughter was suspected in the attack , DeLuca said . `` That 's my understanding . '' Hearing that news devastated her , he added , saying Monday that she 's `` very distraught '' and `` cries a lot . '' `` The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all , '' DeLuca 's Tuesday statement said . `` As a mother , a sister , a daughter , a wife , Katie deeply mourns the pain and loss to innocent victims -- students , law enforcement , families and our community . In the aftermath of this tragedy , she , her daughter and her family are trying to come to terms with these events . '' Timeline : A look at Tamerlan 's past . `` The whole family is a mess , to put it bluntly , '' he said Monday . `` They 're very distraught . They 're upset . Their lives have been unalterably changed . They 're upset because of what happened , the people that were injured , that were killed . It 's an awful , terrible thing . '' Tsarnaev 's domestic violence arrest . Tsarnaev and Russell met when she was a student at Suffolk University in Boston , although it is unclear when they began dating . The couple married on June 21 , 2010 , according to marriage records at the Cambridge City Hall . Eleven months earlier , Tsarnaev was arrested , accused of domestic assault and battery against his girlfriend at his home in Cambridge , police records said . The police report was redacted to hide the girlfriend 's name , and a police spokesman would not confirm it was Russell . The woman , who was `` crying hysterically , '' called 911 to report that she was `` beat up by her boyfriend '' on the afternoon of July 28 , 2009 , Cambridge Police Officer Angela Pereira wrote in the arrest report . Tsarnaev told Pereira and another officer that his girlfriend `` was yelling at him because of another girl . '' Suspect says brother was brains behind attack . `` I asked the suspect if he had hit the victim , and he stated 'Yes , I slapped her , ' `` Pereira wrote . The girlfriend told police Tsarnaev hit the left side of her face . `` No visible marks were seen , '' Pereira said . NPR 's Laura Sullivan reported Friday on an interview with unnamed women she described as Russell 's close friends and college roommates . `` They described Tamerlan as very controlling and very manipulative of their friend , '' Sullivan said . `` They say he was combative and angry . He would often call ( Russell ) names and insult her . He would call her a slut and a prostitute , and they remember fights that they would get into where he would fly into rages and sometimes throw furniture or throw things . '' Russell dropped out of school after she became pregnant in her senior year , the women told Sullivan . `` They say that she really pulled away from her friends , that she cut off contact with them , and she also cut off contact with her family members which her friends had been in contact with , '' she reported . Did one brother brainwash the other ? Wife is staying with parents . Russell was born and raised in suburban Providence , Rhode Island , a Christian who converted to Islam after marrying Tsarnaev . She 's an observant Muslim and wears a headscarf , her lawyer said . Katie -- that 's what family and friends call her -- is staying now with her parents in North Kingstown , Rhode Island , but before last week she was living in Cambridge and working as a home health aide , he said . `` She worked many , many hours . '' Her husband took care of their daughter each day while she was at work , her lawyer said . `` She would go off in the morning , she would work 'til late at night , '' he said . `` She called to see how her daughter was and that kind of stuff , like any person would . '' A killer in the family . Widow is not talking yet . The Russell family hired DeLuca on Saturday , after federal agents contacted them asking to interview her , he said . For now , he is the one speaking to the FBI . `` She understands the need for doing it , '' he said . `` This is the way the government looks at it , and she understands this . It 's a threat to national security , and she gets that . And she 's a really good person , very sympathetic to that . Katie 's just trying to bring up her daughter . '' What we know about the suspects . In the statement released Tuesday , DeLuca said Russell is very close to her family . `` She is fortunate to have the support of her loving family now , as they , too , struggle to come to terms with these events and the deep sorrow we all feel following the events of last week , '' he said . `` The injuries and loss of life -- to people who came to celebrate a race and a holiday -- has caused profound distress and sorrow to Katie and her family . '' The family released its own statement Friday , after learning Tsarnaev had died . `` Our daughter has lost her husband today , the father of her child , '' the family said . `` We can not begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred . In the aftermath of the Patriots ' Day horror , we know that we never really knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev . Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted . Please respect our family 's privacy in this difficult time . '' FBI agents interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 .
Katherine Russell `` is doing everything '' to help investigators , lawyer says . Comment: Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested for domestic violence a year before marriage . `` She knew nothing about '' her husband being a suspect , Russell 's lawyer says .