Bullseye: Bomber's moment of truth

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's image on Rolling Stone's cover infuriated Boston policeman Sean Murphy.

On the cover of Rolling Stone, accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears brooding and tousle-haired.

In startling images which appeared yesterday in Boston magazine, a downcast, dishevelled Tsarnaev has the red dot of a sniper's rifle laser sight boring into his forehead. The photos were taken when he was captured hiding under a tarpaulin-covered boat.

The Massachusetts state police officer who released the gritty images said he was furious with the Rolling Stone cover photo as he felt it glamorised the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect.

Within hours of the photographs appearing, Sergeant Sean Murphy was relieved of his duties.

Murphy told Boston magazine that Rolling Stone's cover photo, a softly lit image of Tsarnaev, glamorised the "face of terror".

"It also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine," he said.

Murphy said in a statement on Boston's website: "I believe that the image portrayed by Rolling Stone magazine was an insult to any person who has every worn a uniform or any police organisation or military branch, and the family members who have ever lost a loved one serving in the line of duty."

The magazine's editor, John Wolfson, told CNN: "I think he was genuinely worried about the impact on the families of the victims and worried that some people may be compelled to replicate that from the glamour (of being on a magazine cover)" .