Sari Horwitz and Peter Finn of The Washington Post have more details regarding the FBI shooting of a former friend of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and they're strange enough to raise eyebrows.
On May 21 an FBI agent, along with two Massachusetts State Police troopers and other law enforcement personnel, interviewed Ibragim Todashev about his connection to Tsarnaev.
Early the next morning, after hours of questioning at his apartment, the 27-year-old Chechen was shot dead.
Here are some of the odd circumstances surrounding the incident:
- An official told The Post that the other law enforcement officials had just stepped out of the room — leaving the FBI agent alone with Todashev — when the shooting occurred.
- Law enforcement officials said Todashev acknowledged involvement a triple murder in Waltham, Mass., on Sept. 11, 2011 and implicated Tsarnaev. But he had not yet signed a written statement based on the alleged confession when he was shot seven times.
- Officials initially said Todashev had a knife while others suggested that he attempted to grab the FBI agent’s gun. However, a law enforcement official told the Post thatTodashev was unarmed. Another said Todashevlunged at the agent and overturned a table.
- ABC News reports, citing sources, that there was a samurai sword in the room, "which may have accounted for some of the initial confusion over whether a weapon was involved."
- The FBI agent suffered “some cuts and abrasions.” An official told The Wall Street Journal that the agent might have been cut by a piece of furniture in the scuffle.
Todashev, a martial arts fighter, met Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Boston before Todashev moving to Orlando. He was not suspected of involvement in the April 15 Boston bombings.
John Miller, a former FBI assistant director who is now a senior correspondent for CBS News, said police were questioning Todashev because he had been in contact with Tamerlan Tsarnaev prior to the bombings, had visited Tsarnaev in Boston, and had a ticket to fly to Russia this month to spend the summer in his native Chechnya.
Will Englund of The Washington Post reports that Todashev's father, who lives in Chechnya, says the FBI murdered his son.
“Maybe my son knew some sort of information that the police didn’t want to get out,” he said. “They shut him up. That’s my opinion.”
Todashev's family is calling for an independent investigation.
"We're not accusing them (the FBI) of anything at this point," Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Tampa, Florida branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said. "There's a lot of questions to be answered to make sure our law enforcement officers are abiding by the highest standards and rules as they conduct their investigations."
SEE ALSO: Boston Bombing Suspect Reportedly Scribbled A Confession On The Boat He Was Found In
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