This is odd , have to wait and see what develops......
http://rt.com/usa/todashev-death-fbi-circumstances-769/
The FBI first began surveillance and later questioned Todashev several days after the April 15 Boston attack took place. From all accounts, he had cooperated with investigators up until his death.
Todashev had reportedly purchased a plane ticket before the bombings occurred to return to his native Chechnya, but canceled his trip at the FBI’s request.
“He had a ticket to New York. From there, he was going to go home [to Chechnya],” WESH Orlando quoted his friend and roommate Kushen Taramov as saying. “[The FBI was] pushing him to stay, saying, ‘we want to interview one last time.'" Taramov said Todashev canceled the ticket at the FBI’s insistence.
When news of the shooting first broke, Taramov said he and Todashev had been interviewed by FBI agents for nearly three hours on Tuesday in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings.
“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back.”
Taramov, who noted that Todashev had been interviewed on multiple occasions following the Boston attack, denies law enforcement accounts that his friend simply went crazy and attacked.
"He didn't flip out," Taramov, said. "I think something went wrong there. I think they just shot him. He didn't do anything. I know him. He just wanted everything to be over."
Todashev did have a history of violence. According to records from the Orange County Sheriff Office, Todashev had been charged earlier this month with aggravated battery for allegedly fighting with a father and son over a parking space in a mall parking lot in Kissimmee, Florida. Todashev said he acted in self-defense.
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/22403812/fbi-shooting-orlando-moments-before-fatal-shooting-of-ibragim-todashev-still-unclear
( Clear as mud I see.... Official story falling apart ? )
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/fbi-shoots-dead-man-linked-to-boston-bombs/story-fni0xqll-1226648794606
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-shoots-florida-man-possibly-linked-boston-bombing/story?id=19231642#.UZy5h6LtWSo
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/22/breaking-fbi-shoots-kills-person-of-interest-in-boston-bombing-after-man-attacks-him/
http://michellemalkin.com/2013/05/22/who-is-ibragim-todashev-chechen-friend-of-boston-bomber-planning-to-fly-back-to-chechnya-killed-by-fbi-agent/
Mugshot of Ibragim Todashev
http://rt.com/usa/todashev-death-fbi-circumstances-769/
FBI killing of man with ties to Tsarnaev: Self-defense or excessive force?
Published time: May 25, 2013 00:03
Edited time: May 25, 2013 01:30
Edited time: May 25, 2013 01:30
A member of the FBI enters the apartment of Ibragim Todashev, 27, in Orlando, Florida, May 22, 2013. (Reuters / Phelan Ebenehack)
The circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of Ibragim Todashev remain murky, and the FBI has little interest in revealing too much information as the suspect’s death might be a case of excessive force, associate law professor Sahar Aziz told RT.
So was there a knife?
According to the preliminary FBI account, Todashev, a 28-year-old Chechen immigrant living in Orlando, Florida, became violent and lunged at an FBI special agent with a knife while being questioned about his ties to alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and an unsolved 2011 triple murder in the Boston suburb of Waltham. The agent, reacting to an “imminent threat,” shot Todashev dead.
Ibragim Todashev is pictured in this undated booking photo courtesy of the Orange County Corrections Department. (AFP Photo)
Later in the day, FBI officials backed away from that version of events, leaving no clear official account of what happened moments before Todashev was killed on Wednesday.
Witnesses report hearing multiple shots that night, and while an autopsy reportedly completed by Thursday, the report will not be released until a criminal investigation into the event is completed.
At the time of the shooting, up to half a dozen law-enforcers, including two Massachusetts State Police troopers and an FBI agent from the agency’s Boston division, were present at the condo not far from Universal Studios.
The FBI claims that moments before Todashev "just went crazy" and attacked the agent, he had agreed to sign a confession which would have implicated both him and Tamerlan in the unsolved killings in which three male victims brutally had their throats slit. The murders took place on September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.
While law enforcement sources initially said Todashev stabbed the agent with a knife, there was later“confusion” over what object he actually used to attack his questioner, ABC news reports.
“Definitely no one said that he had pulled a gun but there was some media talk about whether he had pulled a knife, and then the FBI retracted that and said we don’t know exactly what happened,” said Sahar Aziz, and Associate Law Professor at Texas Wesleyan University.
“So there is definitely a question of whether shooting him was a use of excessive force. Because even if, for example, he had punched the officer, it could possibly be unreasonable or unnecessary to shoot someone in defense of being punched. Usually you are supposed to use commensurate force,” she told RT.
Witnesses report hearing multiple shots that night, and while an autopsy reportedly completed by Thursday, the report will not be released until a criminal investigation into the event is completed.
At the time of the shooting, up to half a dozen law-enforcers, including two Massachusetts State Police troopers and an FBI agent from the agency’s Boston division, were present at the condo not far from Universal Studios.
The FBI claims that moments before Todashev "just went crazy" and attacked the agent, he had agreed to sign a confession which would have implicated both him and Tamerlan in the unsolved killings in which three male victims brutally had their throats slit. The murders took place on September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.
While law enforcement sources initially said Todashev stabbed the agent with a knife, there was later“confusion” over what object he actually used to attack his questioner, ABC news reports.
“Definitely no one said that he had pulled a gun but there was some media talk about whether he had pulled a knife, and then the FBI retracted that and said we don’t know exactly what happened,” said Sahar Aziz, and Associate Law Professor at Texas Wesleyan University.
“So there is definitely a question of whether shooting him was a use of excessive force. Because even if, for example, he had punched the officer, it could possibly be unreasonable or unnecessary to shoot someone in defense of being punched. Usually you are supposed to use commensurate force,” she told RT.
‘He just wanted everything to be over’
The FBI first began surveillance and later questioned Todashev several days after the April 15 Boston attack took place. From all accounts, he had cooperated with investigators up until his death.
Todashev had reportedly purchased a plane ticket before the bombings occurred to return to his native Chechnya, but canceled his trip at the FBI’s request.
“He had a ticket to New York. From there, he was going to go home [to Chechnya],” WESH Orlando quoted his friend and roommate Kushen Taramov as saying. “[The FBI was] pushing him to stay, saying, ‘we want to interview one last time.'" Taramov said Todashev canceled the ticket at the FBI’s insistence.
When news of the shooting first broke, Taramov said he and Todashev had been interviewed by FBI agents for nearly three hours on Tuesday in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings.
“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back.”
Taramov, who noted that Todashev had been interviewed on multiple occasions following the Boston attack, denies law enforcement accounts that his friend simply went crazy and attacked.
"He didn't flip out," Taramov, said. "I think something went wrong there. I think they just shot him. He didn't do anything. I know him. He just wanted everything to be over."
Todashev did have a history of violence. According to records from the Orange County Sheriff Office, Todashev had been charged earlier this month with aggravated battery for allegedly fighting with a father and son over a parking space in a mall parking lot in Kissimmee, Florida. Todashev said he acted in self-defense.
While living in Boston, he was also arrested in February 2010 after getting into a fight with strangers. One witness stated Todashev “was clearly the aggressor,” according to police reports.
However, his father, Abdulbaki Todashev, described his son as “a very calm” man, saying his son would not become aggressive without reason.
“Never in his life would he attack anyone unprovoked,” the elder Todashev stressed.
Todashev’s estranged wife, Reniya Manukyan, said her husband was cooperating with the FBI and had nothing to hide. "He wasn't involved. So he was not even nervous [to talk with the FBI]," local NBC affiliate News Channel 5 cites her as saying.
Reniya Manukyan seen with her husband, Ibragim Todashev. (Image from vk.com)
Manukyan said their common Chechen roots and an interest in mixed martial arts brought her husband into contact with Tsarnaev, but “they weren’t friends or anything.” “He expected that they were going to come and question him because they both come from the same place from Chechnya,” she explained.
She also denies her husband’s role in the 2011 triple homicide, though she does confirm he traveled back to Boston in the summer of 2011. DNA from that crime scene is currently being tested and compared with Todashev's DNA.
Later, in an angry post on Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social network, Manukyan blasted the FBI with an expletive-strewn post, claiming: “ Killing my husband Ibragim was another [proof] that everything is a setup about Tsarnaev brothers as well. ”
Many questions with no answers, yet
Early on Wednesday morning, officials at the FBI headquarter in Washington dispatched a shooting-response unit to Florida to help investigators determine what had occurred.
The following day, scores of FBI employees could be seen coming and going from the condo where Todashev was killed.
In addition to the FBI's review team, a separate Shooting Incident Review Group committee will analyze the incident. The independent committee, which includes up to 13 members of the FBI, will evaluate whether use of force was justified. No new information will likely surface until those investigations are concluded.
But apart from the use of deadly force, several other questions have been raised regarding the death of Todashev.
If Todashev had a history of violence, was being interviewed in connection with a recent terrorist event, and was believed to have played a role in a related triple homicide, why was he being interviewed in his home at midnight and not at a law enforcement facility?
How did a knife or other unidentified object come into his possession during the course of the several hour interview?
If law enforcers are unwilling to state emphatically that the object in question was even a knife, was lethal force necessary to subdue him while vastly outnumbered by several agents?
FBI personnel walk through the complex surrounding the apartment, where Ibragim Todashev, 27, was shot and killed by FBI, in Orlando, Florida, May 22, 2013. (Reuters / Phelan Ebenehack)
Todashev had yet to be charged with a crime and had every right to refuse being questioned without having a lawyer present. From all accounts, he had been willing to cooperate with the FBI on multiple occasions. He also chose not to return home to Chechnya although he had already purchased tickets and no warrant had been issued for his arrest. If he felt cornered or pressured into making a confession, why would he attack half a dozen law enforcers rather than ask for a lawyer?
And last but not least - was the final interrogation videotaped?
“We know very little about what happened because the only source of information is the FBI and presumably it’s not in their self-interest to reveal too much information [since] there’s now an investigation into his death because this could possibly be a case of excessive force in violation of his constitutional rights,” Sahar Aziz argues.
Whatever happened that night, Taramov recalled an ominous conversation he had with Todashev just hours before his death.
“We had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen…He felt inside he was going to get shot," Taramov said.
"I told him, 'everything is going to be fine, don't worry about it.' He said, 'I have a really bad feeling.'"
Whatever happened that night, Taramov recalled an ominous conversation he had with Todashev just hours before his death.
“We had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen…He felt inside he was going to get shot," Taramov said.
"I told him, 'everything is going to be fine, don't worry about it.' He said, 'I have a really bad feeling.'"
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/22403812/fbi-shooting-orlando-moments-before-fatal-shooting-of-ibragim-todashev-still-unclear
( Clear as mud I see.... Official story falling apart ? )
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/fbi-shoots-dead-man-linked-to-boston-bombs/story-fni0xqll-1226648794606
A CHECHEN man shot dead by the FBI during questioning on his links to the Boston bombers was not violent, his father says.
Ibragim Todashev, 27, was shot by the FBI in Florida on Wednesday after he stabbed an agent during questioning on his possible involvement with Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a triple homicide that took place before the Boston bombings, local media reported.
Todashev's father, Abdulbaki Todashev, speaking from his home town of Grozny in Chechnya on Thursday, told Kremlin-funded RT television that his son knew Tsarnaev when he lived in Boston.
"It turns out that they simply went to the same gym together," he told the channel by phone from Grozny.
Tsarnaev was a keen boxer while Todashev was a mixed martial arts fighter.
Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar are alleged to have carried out the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon, which killed three people and wounded more than 260.
The Todashev family moved back to Grozny from Saratov in central Russia when their son was a student, his father said.
His son asked to go to the US to practise his English.
"Then when he went over, he liked it and he said: Can I stay here?"
His son apparently had a ticket to fly to Chechnya this month but then changed his plans, he said.
It was not clear whether Todashev was suspected of a role in the bombings.
One of his friends told WESH TV in Florida that the FBI had expressed interest in him since the bombing and that Todashev feared he would be "set-up".
Todashev's father insisted his son was not a violent person.
"If you don't provoke him, he is a very calm person and he would never attack anyone in his life."
Nor was he extremely devout, he said.
"He is ordinary, like all Chechens, he followed Islam and that's it."
He also said that Todashev was recovering from an operation and was "learning to walk again" and would not have been able to take part in the bombings.
Investigators told US media that Tsarnaev and Todashev were believed to have carried out a 2011 murder of three in a Boston suburb, whose bodies were found nearly decapitated and covered with marijuana and thousands of dollars in cash.
Todashev attacked an FBI agent with a knife and was shot, investigators said in an account that his father questioned.
"How could he attack a policeman with a knife especially, as they say, if there were five or six of them in his house?" he asked.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-shoots-florida-man-possibly-linked-boston-bombing/story?id=19231642#.UZy5h6LtWSo
The man shot dead by an FBI agent in Orlando, Florida early today was "about to sign a statement" admitting to a role, along with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in an unsolved triple murder in Massachusetts in 2011, two people with direct knowledge of the case told ABC News.
Ibragim Todashev "just went crazy," and pulled a knife during his interview with the FBI, said state and federal law enforcement officials briefed on the latest strange twist in the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing.
One official said an FBI agent was stabbed several times, although his injuries were described by the FBI as "non-life threatening."
FBI agents and Massachusetts state police began to question Todashev after his name and phone number were recovered from the phone of the dead bombing suspect. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police days after he and his younger brother Dzhokhar allegedly planted two bombs near the finish line at the Boston Marathon April 15, killing three and injuring more than 260 others. Dzhokhar was later captured and is in custody.
Todashev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev both fought mixed martial arts in the name of Boston's Wai Kru gym, where one of the 2011 triple murder victims, Brendan Mess, also trained, according to a former fighter there and law enforcement officials.
Orange County Sheriff's Office
Ibragim Todashev was arrested May 4, 2013 in... View Full Size
FBI Fatally Shoots Florida Man in Boston Bombing Probe Watch Video
Did Boston Bomb Suspect Leave a Note? Watch Video
Boston Bombing Warning SignsWatch Video
According to officials, Todashev was initially being questioned about any role in the marathon bombing when it emerged he had connections to the gruesome murder. There is no indication Todashev was tied to the bombing, sources familiar with the case said.
In the wake of the bombing, detectives developed DNA evidence linking both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar to the triple murder scene.
The three men who were killed had their throats slit and their bodies were left with cash and marijuana placed on top of them. The murder took place on September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of the al Qaeda terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Also killed with Mess were Raffael Teken and Eric Weissman. A spokesperson for the Middlesex County district attorney, which is handling the triple murder investigation, declined to make any official statement today.
According to a recent Florida police report, Todashev was arrested May 4 and booked with aggravated battery for allegedly fighting with a father and son over a parking space in a mall parking lot in Kissimmee, Fla. Todashev had told police he fought in self-defense as the son "came at him swinging" after Todashev pushed the father. The father did not want to press charges, but the son did, the report said.
In February 2010, Todashev had a run-in with the law in Boston when he was arrested after getting in a fight with strangers in which one witness said he was "clearly the aggressor," according to a police report.
Todashev was a lawful permanent resident holding a Russian passport, when he arrived in the U.S. in 2008 on a student visa, a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
Despite a recent assault arrest, his immigration file was devoid of derogatory information, the official said.
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/22/breaking-fbi-shoots-kills-person-of-interest-in-boston-bombing-after-man-attacks-him/
Breaking: FBI shoots, kills person of interest in Boston bombing after man attacks agent
POSTED AT 7:49 AM ON MAY 22, 2013 BY ED MORRISSEY
One of two men allegedly being questioned in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings was shot and killed by an FBI agent in Florida on Tuesday, sources told WESH-TV.According to NBC News, a special agent was interviewing the suspect regarding his connections to bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and other extremists. The suspect, who was not immediately identified by officials, was originally cooperative, died when he was shot after attacking the agent, NBC News confirmed. …“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back,” Taramiv said.“He felt inside he was going to get shot,” Taramiv said about Todashev. “I told him, ‘Everything is going to be fine, don’t worry about it.’ He said, ‘I have a really bad feeling.’”
According to the dead man’s friends, the FBI had been taking an interest in all of them. Why? As the video above notes, Todashev had Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s phone number on his cell phone, and the friend admits that he and Tsarnaev spoke about a month before the Boston Marathon bombing. According to sources talking with WCVB in Boston(which has another video report), contact was made later than that:
The man claims he and Todashev were interviewed by the FBI for nearly three hours on Tuesday. The friend said he left the interview, and when he came back to the apartment he found that there had been a shooting. Todashev was killed, WESH reported.The FBI confirmed that a person was shot and killed, but would not disclose details about the investigation. …Sources said Todashev spoke with Tsarnaev one week before the April 15 attack.
The FBI has had quite a bit of time to run down the various leads from phone records relating to the Tsarnaevs, as well as the initial interrogations with Dzhokhar before he got Mirandized. If this was a hot lead, the timing seems a little odd. On the other hand, if this was just a routine tying-up-loose-ends effort, why did Todashev get combative (if that’s what happened)? Why did he tell his friends that he had “a bad feeling” and start making arrangements for his friends to contact his family once he realized that the FBI had taken an interest in him?
It’s a strange development in an already strange case.
Update: The Boss Emeritus notes that Todashev had planned to return to Chechnya, but that the FBI “strongly advised” him not to do that.
Khusen Taramov says 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. “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 everyday,” said Taramov.Taramov says Todashev met Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Boston and the two had hung out a few times. Taramov says Todashev met with FBI agents last night and it was supposed to be their last meeting because he was planning to fly back to Chechnya last night. He says the plane ticket was purchased before the Boston bombings but federal agents strongly advised him not to go home.“He cancelled the tickets because, the FBI had been like, I don’t know, they’ve been pushing him, you know what I’m saying. They’ve been pushing him they say don’t leave; don’t leave so he decided to stay. But we had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen. You know what I mean,” said Taramov.
Something must have piqued the FBI’s interest, and not just the fact that Todashev was Chechnyan — and something must have provoked Todashev to get violent, when cooperation would probably have put him back on a plane to Chechnya in short order. Michelle also notes, as did the original story, that Todashev also fought in the MMA ranks, as did Tsarnaev.
Who is Ibragim Todashev? Chechen friend of Boston bomber, planning to fly back to Chechnya, killed by FBI agent
 |
Mugshot of Ibragim Todashev
Via WESH this morning, check out the story of a fatal shooting involving an FBI agent and a man who knew Boston marathon jihad bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
An FBI agent was involved in a deadly shooting overnight that could have ties to the Boston Marathon bombings.Officials said the special agent was conducting official duties when they encountered a suspect. The suspect, who was not immediately identified by officials, died.A friend of the suspect said his friend, 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, was being investigated as part of the Boston bombings and knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because both were MMA fighters.The man claims he and Todashev were interviewed by the FBI for nearly three hours on Tuesday.
Here’s video of Todashev on YouTube:
Here’s his official MMA profile.
This news report says Todashev was from Chechnya and had been planning to fly back:
Khusen Taramov says 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. “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 everyday,” said Taramov.Taramov says Todashev met Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Boston and the two had hung out a few times.
Taramov says Todashev met with FBI agents last night and it was supposed to be their last meeting because he was planning to fly back to Chechnya last night. He says the plane ticket was purchased before the Boston bombings but federal agents strongly advised him not to go home.“He cancelled the tickets because, the FBI had been like, I don’t know, they’ve been pushing him, you know what I’m saying. They’ve been pushing him they say don’t leave; don’t leave so he decided to stay. But we had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen. You know what I mean,” said Taramov.The FBI has not identified the man killed but says the agent was working on a case inside the apartment complex when the shooting happened. “We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent. The incident occurred in Orlando Florida. The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time. We expect to have more information later this morning,” said FBI spokesperson Special Agent Dave Couvertier.
Keep an eye on this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment