With the car stopped at a gas station, Danny made his move to escape. When Dzhokhar left his vehicle to go to an A.T.M. and pump gas, Danny unbuckled his seatbelt with his left hand, opened the door with his right hand and ran from the car with Tamerlan still sitting in it.

“I took off,’’ he said. “(Tamerlan) tried to grab me. He was trying to grab me. It was very close. I can feel it.”

Danny ran to another gas station and called 911, telling police they could locate the suspects through his car’s satellite system and the iPhone he left behind.

Police used the car’s GPS to track the suspects, cornering the two brothers before a shootout left Tamerlan dead and put 32 bullet holes in the Mercedes.

To keep hopeful through his ordeal, Danny said he thought of a girl he had met in New York.