An FBI agent shot and killed 26-year-old Chechen Ibragim Todashev in Orlando Florida overnight, cfnews13 reported on Wednesday. Todashev, reportedly, knew, and "hung out" with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev While Todashev was not involved in the bombings, the FBI has been following him ever since, and routinely questioned him at an apartment complex near Universal Studios in central Florida.
The shooting took place in the Windhover apartment complex, reports said.
Khusen Taramov, a fellow Chechen in Orlando, said that federal agent began questioning people at the apartment of Chechen descent, since the terror attacks in Boston on April 15. Officials say FBI agents were questioning Todashev, and reportedly was cooperative at first but by late on Tuesday night, he attacked the agent, who then shot and killed him, NBC News reported.
Taramov said that Todashev met Tamerlan Tsarnaev a few times while in Boston. He also said that Tuesday night's meeting with FBI agents intended to be their last meeting, since he had plans to go back to Chechnya, something federal agents strongly advised him not to do.
"In the encounter in the apartment, something went wrong," CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, a former FBI assistant director said.
"He cancelled the tickets because the FBI.... had been pushing.... They [said] 'don't leave, don't leave' so he decided to stay. But we had a feeling of the worst case scenario something like [this would] happen," Taramov said.
The FBI confirmed that Todashev and killed at the apartment complex, and a post-shooting incident review team has been dispatched from DC and is due to arrive likely by Wednesday evening.
"We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent," said FBI spokesman Special Agent Dave Couvertier. "The incident occurred in Orlando, Florida. The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The suspect is deceased. We do have any further details at this time," he said.
Investigators were also looking at whether Todashev might have had any role in a triple murder in 2011, in which three men were murdered in an apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police In Watertown, Massachusetts, just days after the marathon bombings. Dzhokhar, his younger brother, remain in federal custody and awaits trial.
