His friend is hard at work claiming victim status for him, but doesn’t explain why he attacked the agent. “FBI agent shoots and kills Orlando man with ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev,” by Wesley Lowery and John R. Ellement for the Boston Globe, May 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):
A Chechen man with ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed by an FBI agent in Orlando early today when the man attacked the agent, the FBI said in a statement.
The FBI identified the person shot and killed as Ibragim Todashev, 26.
According to the FBI and local news accounts, the shooting took place in an apartment building on Peregrine Avenue while Todashev was being questioned about the bombings and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
“The agent, along with other law enforcement personnel, were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the subject,– the FBI said in a statement released around 9:30 a.m. today.
“During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries,– the FBI said. “As this incident is under review, we have no further details at this time.”
Khusen Tamariv, a friend of Todashev told WESH-TV in Orlando, that both he and Todashev were questioned about his ties to Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout in Watertown with police on April 19; his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in federal custody and facing charges that could bring the death penalty.
The bombings killed three people and wounded more than 260 people. MIT Police Officer Sean Collier was also allegedly murdered by the brothers.
Today, the FBI said a Washington-based deadly force investigative team is being sent to Orlando to investigate the shooting.
Taramiv said he was released by the FBI, but Todashev was still being questioned by the agents.
Taramiv said Todashev met Tsarnaev when both lived in Massachusetts, and that the two men spoke with each other “months before” the April 15 bombings.
Taramiv said his friend was not close to Tsarnaev. “They were not best friends,– Taramiv told the Orlando station.
Taramiv insisted that Todashev was not a radicalized Muslim, and that he had no role, nor did he know anything about the Marathon bombing attack.
“He was not a radical. He was a Muslim,– Taramiv said. “I”m a Muslim. That’s it… He never had a gun… He was shocked– by the attacks.
Taramiv said Todashev was worried about the direction of the questioning by the FBI agents, that he was going to be “set up– by the law enforcement agency.
“He had a bad feeling,– Taramiv, who quoted Todashev as telling him that the FBI was “making up this crazy stuff– that there was a connection between the terror suspect and himself….