Execution, says father of man FBI shot; govt says he attacked

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

The father of a Florida man with ties to Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev said Thursday that his son was slain "execution-style" by FBI agents last week in Orlando.

Ibragim Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, was shot in his Florida home on May 22 while an FBI agent and two Massachusetts state troopers questioned him about the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, as well as a triple slaying in Massachusetts two years ago.

Todashev's father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, told reporters in Moscow that his son had several gunshot wounds to his torso and one to the back of his head. The elder Todashev displayed photos he claimed were of his son's body in a Florida morgue, according to the Associated Press.

Initially, at least one law enforcement official told USA TODAY that Todashev, an ethnic Chechen, was armed with a knife or other sharp object and violently attacked an FBI agent during questioning, which led the agent to open fire.

Some news reports Thursday, quoting FBI and law enforcement sources, said Todashev was unarmed when he was shot.

Late Thursday, a more detailed government version of the incident emerged.

Todashev overturned a wooden table, forcefully shoved an FBI agent into a wall and lunged at the agent with a pole, a government official briefed on the incident but not authorized to speak publicly said.

The FBI agent and state troopers had interviewed Todashev earlier that morning, the government official said. That afternoon, when Todashev did not answer his phone, the FBI agent, the two troopers and an Orlando police officer went to his condo, the government official said.

Todashev invited them in and began talking, the official said. As the conversation continued, Todashev indicated he was ready to confess to his involvement in the homicides, so the FBI agent pulled up a table so Todashev could write down his confession, the government official said. Meanwhile, one of the troopers left the room to make a phone call and the Orlando officer accompanied him, the official said.

Todashev became agitated, the government official said. He suddenly stood and flipped the wooden table up, hitting the FBI agent, who was slammed "forcefully" into the wall, the government official said.

Todashev reached down and picked up a metal pole about the size of a broom handle and swung it at the FBI agent, the official said.

The agent fired two or three shots, hitting Todashev, but Todashev came at him again with the metal pole, the official said. The FBI agent then shot him "until he eliminated the threat," the official said. The incident happened in a few seconds, the official said.

The FBI agent was treated at the hospital for injuries, including lacerations that required stitches, the government official said.

CAIR wants civil rights probe of Todashev death An advocacy group is demanding a civil rights investigation into the death of a Chechen immigrant who was shot to death by authorities in central Florida while being questioned about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. (May 30)

At the news conference in Moscow on Thursday, Todashev's father, flanked by Maxim Shevchenko, a member of the Presidential Council of Human Rights, said his son was never a close friend of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and knew nothing about the attacks in advance.

He called "absurd" the claims by some U.S. officials that Todashev had attacked an FBI agent.

"Maybe my son knew something, some information the police did not want to be made public. Maybe they wanted to silence my son," Todashev's father said.

He said his son was grilled for many hours about the Boston bombings.

"They tortured a man for eight hours with no attorney, no witnesses, nobody. We can only guess what was going on there, until there is an official investigation," Todashev said.

Shevchenko told reporters at the news conference that Todashev's killing looked like "cold-blooded murder."

The Florida branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for a federal civil rights investigation.

"We have confirmed through senior sources within the FBI that Ibragim was indeed unarmed when he was shot seven times in the head, what appear to be even in the back of the head," said Hassan Shibly, executive director of the CAIR Florida. "That's very disturbing."

Later, according to the Orlando Sentinel, Shibly told reporters that CAIR has an "intermediary" who said the FBI told him Todashev was unarmed. Shibly did not identify the intermediary.

Shibly, speaking to reporters in Orlando on Wednesday, said the group was calling for the independent investigation "to make sure excessive force was not used against this unarmed individual."

Todashev has not been directly implicated in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260. The FBI has said only that Todashev, a martial arts enthusiast like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, knew the suspect when he lived in Boston.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 27, and his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, were named as suspects in the bombings. Tamerlan died three days after the bombings during a shootout with police that also left Dzhokhar injured.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was later captured and charged in connection with the bombings. He is being held at a prison medical center near Boston.

Contributing: Associated Press