Boston Marathon: Man Shot by FBI was Unarmed

The man fatally shot by an FBI agent during questioning about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was unarmed, according to reports.

Ibragim Todashev, a 27-year-old Chechen immigrant, had been questioned for hours on May 22 in Florida when "a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual", the FBI said at the time.

Early reports said Todashev had been brandishing a knife, though investigators subsequently said it was unclear if he had been carrying a weapon

Now a law enforcement official has told the Washington Post that he flipped over the table and lunged at the FBI agent but did not have a gun or a knife.

A second official also said Todashev was unarmed, the Post reported.

Todashev is said to have been friends with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who is suspected along with his surviving brother Dzhokar of being behind the double bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260 at the Boston Marathon.

Advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic Relations is demanding a civil rights investigation into Todashev's death.

Spokesman Hassan Shibly said he wants to know if excessive force was used or whether Todashev's rights were violated.

The medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide.

During the interrogation, Todashev was also grilled about a 2011 triple murder in Massachusetts.

He was on the point of signing a confession implicating himself and the elder Tsarnaev brother in that crime when the confrontation began, US media reported last week.

Todashev was a martial arts fighter who trained with Tsarnaev in Boston before moving to Florida.

Public records show Todashev lived in the Boston suburb of Watertown until 2012.

Meanwhile, Todashev's father  said on Thursday the American agents responsible were "bandits" who should face trial.

Abdulbaki Todashev bitterly questioned that account at a news conference in Moscow, saying his son was unarmed when he was shot seven times. He said he suspected his son might have been killed to keep him silent.

"I want justice and I want there to be an investigation, so that these people are tried under American law," said Todashev. "These are not FBI agents but bandits - I cannot call them anything else and they must be tried."


Todashev said his son, a mixed martial arts fighter, knew the late Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because they had gone to the same gym in Massachusetts before his son moved to Orlando, Florida, but that they were "not close friends".

Sky News