FBI Agent Kills FL Man During Questioning About Boston Bombing

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Wed May 22, 2013 at 03:52:00 PM EST
Tags: Boston Marathon Bombing (all tags)

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The FBI and Boston police were in Florida questioning Ibragim Todashev, an acquaintance of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, when the FBI says he got violent and an FBI agent shot and killed him in self-defense.

Here is an interview with a friend of Todashev's.

An unnamed source says Todashev is "directly involved" in the triple murder in Massachusetts, in which one of the victims was a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The source says Todashev and Tsarnaev knew each other from martial arts.

Undoubtedly, there is much more to this story. [More...]

So far, this is the statement of the FBI on the shooting death of Todashev:

The FBI is currently reviewing a shooting incident involving an FBI Special Agent. Based on preliminary information, the incident occurred in Orlando, Florida during the early morning hours of 5/22/2013. The agent along with two Massachusetts State Police troopers and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual. During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries. As this incident is under review, we have no further details at this time."

According to Toashev's friend, Khusen Taramov:

...the day that federal agents identified the Tsarnaev brothers as the Boston bombing suspects, FBI agents came to the apartment complex and started questioning a few people of Chechnyan descent. Taramov also said the FBI had been following the group of men.

“One day they started questioning us, next day after the bombing, not the bombing, after they found out the bombers were Chechnyans, and they started following us, watching us. They pretty much told the guy from his apartment and they start following us, watching us like every day,” said Taramov.

Here is the video of the interview with Taramov. He was being interviewed last night as well -- for three hours, and was outside while the agents were inside with Todashev.

Update: Another road rage incident with Todashev in Boston in 2010.

When was the last time Todashev was in Boston? Do police think he was at the Wai Kru gym with the Tsarnaev brothers a few days before the bombing? Did the FBI ever identify that guy?

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FBI Agent Kills FL Man During Questioning About Boston Bombing | 15 comments (15 topical)

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In case anyone is confused, (none / 0) (#1)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed May 22, 2013 at 04:07:37 PM EST

Todashev, the guy killed in FL by the FBI, is NOT said to be directly involved in the Boston Marathon bombing which killed three people, but, rather, said to be directly involved in a different triple murder in Boston back in 2011.

The connection is that Todashev was a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the deceased older brother of the the two Boston marathon bombers.

Authorities went to the apartment (none / 0) (#2)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed May 22, 2013 at 04:23:09 PM EST

Authorities went to [Todashev's] apartment after having obtained what the sources described as strong evidence to suggest that Todashev, Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar were involved in the killings on the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The FBI had already interviewed Todashev more than once before Wednesday. [...]
The Tsarnaev brothers and Todashev apparently knew the three people killed in Waltham, the sources said, describing the 2011 killings as brutal and grisly, with all three bodies nearly decapitated. The bodies had marijuana and thousands of dollars in cash sprinkled on them.

please don't post allegations (none / 0) (#3)
by Jeralyn on Wed May 22, 2013 at 05:20:20 PM EST

by unnamed sources as fact, whether they appear in the news or not. They are not confirmed.

Do not spread rumors here as fact.

Considering what he was alleged to have done (none / 0) (#4)
by shoephone on Wed May 22, 2013 at 05:21:22 PM EST

it's hard to believe the agents didn't frisk him before questioning (unless that is illegal?) There is more to this story than the briefs blurbs that are being reported. And, sadly, this is the kind of thing that feeds the conspiracy theorists...


Since it is not confirmed (none / 0) (#5)
by shoephone on Wed May 22, 2013 at 05:23:07 PM EST

you may want to delete my previous post in response.


The Supreme Court has held (none / 0) (#6)
by Peter G on Wed May 22, 2013 at 05:39:03 PM EST

that it violates the Fourth Amendment restriction against unreasonable searches to frisk someone unless (a) the officer has reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot, AND (b) reasonable suspicion that the suspect is armed and presently dangerous. (The interesting terms "afoot" and "presently" are both used to mean "at the current moment or in the very near future.") These limitations are disregarded by law enforcement officers thousands of times every day, generally "for [their] own safety."


: Thanks Peter (none / 0) (#7)
by shoephone on Wed May 22, 2013 at 05:52:45 PM EST

That's the answer I was seeking.

I Don't Mind You Pulled My Post... (none / 0) (#10)
by ScottW714 on Thu May 23, 2013 at 04:03:07 PM EST

...but now we have to evaluate new story sources, jesus. I wasn't stating anything as fact, just repeating and linking to a news story.

I find the entire thing suspect, 4 law enforcement officers at a suspects home around midnight, he confesses, and then attacks them with a knife and they kill him. He was flying back to Chechnya the next day, but had canceled his flight. The whole thing defies logic IMO.

For the record, I am not stating anything as fact, only what I have read in the news. Which of course doesn't necessarily mean accurate.


FBI credibility (none / 0) (#8)
by TycheSD on Thu May 23, 2013 at 11:21:31 AM EST

Frankly, I have no reason to believe that Todashev or Tsarnaev were involved in that triple murder that Todashev allegedly confessed to.

And, I wonder why four law enforcement people couldn't subdue one man without shooting him. Don't they have training on how to do that?

And, why would someone confess to a crime in his own apartment, and then agree to sign a confession?

Cops have been killed unarmed men in ... (none / 0) (#9)
by redwolf on Thu May 23, 2013 at 01:01:31 PM EST

interrogation rooms before. A few years ago a murder suspect attacked the detective questioning him in the interrogation room and got his gun away from him. His partner fired one shot at the suspect while the detectives struggled with him and fled the interrogation room in fear. The suspect then killed the detective and himself before help could arrive.

So it's not unheard of to be attacked by the suspect or to screw up restraining him during interrogation.


Yes, that's true (none / 0) (#11)
by NYShooter on Thu May 23, 2013 at 06:37:31 PM EST

"Screw-ups" can happen, but, we're not talking about amateur civilians. I come from a law enforcement family and the issue of suspects in police custody is discussed often. Basically, cops are supposed to be the professionals. When they have someone in custody they start out with all the advantages on their side. Certainly the procedures they've supposedly planned , and implemented, should have as their primary goal the safe, and secure, deliverance of the suspect to wherever they're supposed to be taking him.

That doesn't seem to me to be an impossibly difficult, or insurmountable, task.


I think the other issue ... (none / 0) (#12)
by Yman on Fri May 24, 2013 at 12:06:30 PM EST

... is whether (in either case) the suspect was in custody or just being interviewed. If Todashev was just being interviewed and then started to implicate himself, I'd be surprised if they would stop him to place him in custody (search and handcuff him), at least until they thought they had enough to arrest him.

I also wonder how he got the knife, but if Todashev was in close proximity to the agent and lunged at him with a knife, I can't fault the agent for shooting him instead of trying to restrain him ... even with other LEOs there.


He was in his own apartment, wasn't he? (none / 0) (#13)
by jbindc on Fri May 24, 2013 at 01:01:04 PM EST

I mean, it wouldn't be unheard of to have a knife there.


Yeah (none / 0) (#14)
by Yman on Fri May 24, 2013 at 03:54:08 PM EST

I'm just thinking about the circumstances under which he would be able to get it before they noticed. Did he have it hidden or on him, or was he allowed to go into another room (kitchen, etc.)? Was it transitioning from an interview into a custodial situation based upon his reported implication, etc.?

That kind of thing. I wonder how long - if ever - before we find out the specifics.


: Well (none / 0) (#15)
by jbindc on Fri May 24, 2013 at 03:59:16 PM EST

What his former neighbors said about him is all hearsay, of course, but if true, he sounds like he was a violent dude, so it might not be out of the realm of possiblity that he would carry a knife or have one close by in his home - whever they were questioning him.

At the time of yesterday's shooting, Todashev was free on a $3,500 bond, according to Florida court  records, after being arrested May 4 by sheriff's deputies at gunpoint at the Premium Outlet Mall in Orlando on a charge of felony aggravated battery after a mall security guard reported a fight in a parking lot that left a man battered and bleeding.
In 2010, a Boston police report stated Todashev was involved in a violent road rage incident in Downtown Crossing.

So, he potentially does have a history of violent behavior.