Man Tied to Boston Suspect Is Said to Have Attacked Agent Before Being Shot

[alp227]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — A man who was killed in Orlando, Fla., last week while being questioned by an F.B.I. agent about his relationship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, had knocked the agent to the ground with a table and ran at him with a metal pole before being shot, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter.

The official’s account of the shooting, the most detailed to date, came several hours after the man’s Chechen father claimed at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday that his son, Ibragim Todashev, was unarmed when he was killed on May 22. The father, Abdulbaki Todashev, displayed photographs of his son’s bullet-ridden body and demanded that the United States government explain how he was killed.

On the day of the shooting, federal law enforcement officials provided differing accounts of the episode, initially saying Mr. Todashev had a knife. Later they said Mr. Todashev had “exploded” at the agent and might have had a pipe or might not have had anything in his hands.

The shooting occurred after an F.B.I. agent from Boston and two detectives from the Massachusetts State Police had been interviewing Mr. Todashev for several hours about his possible involvement in a triple homicide in Waltham, Mass., in 2011, according to the law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/us/man-tied-to-boston-suspect-said-to-have-attacked-fbi-agent.html?pagewanted=all

[MADem]

1. Metal pole--that's where the "pipe" stuff came from.

This guy was a MMA fighter--I understand he sent the feeb to the hospital with some minor injuries.

Mr. Todashev, according to the F.B.I., confessed to his involvement in the deaths and implicated Mr. Tsarnaev. He then started to write a statement admitting his involvement while sitting at a table across from the agent and one of the detectives when the agent briefly looked away, the official said. At that moment, Mr. Todashev picked up the table and threw it at the agent, knocking him to the ground.

While trying to stand up, the agent, who suffered a wound to his face from the table that required stitches, drew his gun and saw Mr. Todashev running at him with a metal pole, according to the official, adding that it might have been a broomstick.

The agent fired several shots at Mr. Todashev, striking him and knocking him backward. But Mr. Todashev again charged at the agent. The agent fired several more shots at Mr. Todashev, killing him. The detective in the room did not fire his weapon, the official said.

[jberryhill]

2. A metal pole or a broomstick?

Too bad there weren't any trained criminal observers on hand to remember whether it was a metal pole or a broomstick.

Because, as all professional law enforcement agents know, no interrogation room for a murder suspect is complete without having a handy metal pole or broomstick. Custodians at public buildings just leave their equipment any old place. Ummm....

[MADem]

3. I have a broom with a "metal pole" broomstick. Maybe it was both.

He wasn't AT a "public building." He was in HIS kitchen.

Why do people keep assuming this guy was in an interrogation room? He was in his house, at his kitchen table.

[jberryhill]

4. Oh come on

Who has an interrogation room in their kitchen?

Although the lab techs in Bones and NCSI all eat in the lab. Drives me bananas!

[MADem]

7. Well, the guy was being questioned in his condo.

Personally, I think he thought he could take the guy, and he was going for his gun. After all, he's allegedly handled three people in a room before...

It's obvious from the entry wounds that this FBI agent wasn't shooting in a cool, calm manner. The "shot in the back of the head" allegation looks more like a glancing wound to the side of the head--it's right over the left ear.

[jberryhill]

9. Or falling forward from prior shots while lunging

Or some other kind of wound entirely. I'm not an ME and I don't play one on the Internet.

[MADem]

11. I don't know what happened; I wasn't there.

I don't mind a little idle speculation, though. It's human nature.

[jberryhill]

13. It's why NCIS tops the ratings

Although each of the cast seems to appeal to a targeted demographic.

[MADem]

18. As someone who spent decades in the military, I find that show unwatchable.

It's just...not true. It's not even CLOSE to true! It was as bad as JAG--I never knew a lawyer with more warfare qualifications!

I enjoy fantasy as much as the next person, but not when it's poorly executed!

[jberryhill]

20. Come to think of it...

My ex-wife had an interrogation room in the kitchen.

[freshwest]

21. I can see all it now...

Busted!!!

I came in as the sun came up
She glared at me over her coffee cup
She said where you been, so I thought real hard and said,
I fell asleep in that hammock in the yard
She said you don't know it boy but you just blew it
I said well that's my story and I'm stickin' to it

That's my story, that's my story
Well I ain't got a witness I can't prove it but
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it

Well I got that deer in the headlights look
She read my face like the cover of a book, and said
Don't expect me to believe all that static
'Cause just last week I through that hammock in the attic
My skin got so thin you could see right through it
And I started that's my story and I'm stickin' to it

That's my story, that's my story
That's my story, that's my story
Well I ain't got a witness I can't prove it but
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it

You know time comes when a wise man knows the best thing
That he can do is just look her up in the eye
And beg for mercy and face the bitter truth

Well honey me and the boys played cards all night
Wasn't no hanky panky not a woman in sight
And I know I shoulda called and baby I'm really sorry
Let's get a cellular phone then you won't have to worry
You know how much I love you and darling I'm ready to prove it
And that's my story and I'm stickin' to it

That's my story, that's my story
That's my story, that's my story
Well I ain't got a witness and you know I can't prove it but
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it

You know I ain't gonna do a thing
Unless you approve it and
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it

[Beacool]

24. I bet you probably deserved it.

What did you do?

[jakeXT]

6. I've heard everyone but one agent left, also claims of seven shots that hit him

Speaking in Moscow, Ibragim Todashev's father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, said his son was "100% unarmed" but had been shot six times in the torso and once to the back of the head. He showed reporters photographs of the body which he said he had been taken in a Florida morgue by a friend, Khusen Taramov.

...

He said his group had a source close to the FBI investigation who confirmed that Todashev was not armed, and that all but one of the agents had left the room when the fatal shots were fired.

(picture at link)
http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/30/father-chechen-man-killed-fbi-inquiry

[MADem]

8. He wasn't shot in the back of the head. He has a mark just above his left ear that looks like

he got zinged on the SIDE of his head. I don't think that was the fatal shot, but I'm not a forensic type.

He had many shots in his chest and one in his arm--the shooter wasn't firing in a controlled fashion I don't think--the shots aren't neat and close to one another.

[jberryhill]

16. It was Oswald's magic bullet

You see, when Sam Giancana, Poppy Bush, and E Howard Hunt fired their shots at JFK from the railroad overpass, the grassy knoll and behind the fence, Oswald's bullet richeted off of Connelly's knee and was caught briefly in a tractor beam that was part of a secret experiment. From there, it was catapulted into an elliptical earth orbit. When it was seen by Apollo astronauts pretending to go to the moon, the tapes and transcripts were all edited to report it as a UFO. Anyway, its perturbed orbit on account of the moon, finally sent it hurtling into the condo and hit him clean in the back of the head.

[jberryhill]

10. "his group had a source close to the FBI investigation"

A Russian "group" close to an FBI investigation?

Yeah, I'd bet there's a couple of Russian groups that get close to an FBI investigation. Real close.

[jakeXT]

14. I think it's CAIR with Hassan Shibley, I don't know his nationality. /nt

[snot]

5. Best case scenario: feds utterly incompetent.

[jberryhill]

12. Meh. You gotta respect people's rights

If they didn't have probable cause to arrest him and "just wanted to talk" to him, they couldn't haul him off and lock him up.

[jakeXT]

17. They monitored the house, interrogated his friends in a police station, but him they killed at home

[Warpy]

15. And, as usual, the truth lies somewhere in between

I honestly can't see an FBI guy go to a private home for the express purpose of executing a suspect with a gun. Maybe ten of them in a shootout with well armed crazies, but not just one.

I can, however, see someone exploding at an agent and a couple of cops and reaction or even over reaction happening to produce a dead suspect.

Honestly, the guy was more valuable alive than dead, since he could conceivably have given useful information on all sorts of wannabe terrorists like the Tsarnaev brothers.

So the truth lies somewhere between a peaceful, good man being gunned down for no reason and a thug gone crazy trying to cause great bodily harm to three cops with weapons in his hands.

Maybe someday we'll find out what it is.

[MADem]

19. Oh, stop making sense! Your overpowering logic is raising the level of discourse on this board!

We can't have that happen, now, can we?

[DallasNE]

22. First Off, This Should Not Have Happened

There had to be a breakdown in police procedures here. We have a man that just admitted involvement in a triple murder where the 3 murdered had their throats cut and that person is not immediately arrested? We're dealing with someone that is extremely violent and is also a martial arts expert so why are the Mass. troopers stepping out of the room. (I've read one account that said they both stepped out of the room while another account says one stayed in the room but did not get involved in the scuffle -- which is it). Also, I have not heard how many shots were fired, only that 7 hit the suspect. It seems odd as well that the FBI agent would take his eye off of such a dangerous suspect, even for a moment -- so what was the distraction. If one trooper stayed in the room, what did he witness. All we are hearing is what the FBI agent said happened.

Right now the story is incomplete at best. Too much just doesn't reflect sound police work so I fully expect to see this story revised even further. This is not to say things didn't start with the guy upsetting the table but why was he even in a position where he could attack in this manner. Mistakes were clearly made because the outcome is unacceptable. Do police normally tape proceedings like this? That just seems like the normal thing to do because it would serve the prosecution in a later trial. Things are still being held back regarding what happened in that kitchen.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. It was Professor Chechen in the Kitchen with the Knife! No, it was Mr. Drug-Dealer with a Lead Pipe

in the hall! Wait, could it have been Terrorist Confidant in the Dining Room with his bare hands?

Watch as the FBI play Get a Clue! Can they find themselves an alibi before it's too late?

[Beacool]

25. Great, another "scandal" for Issa to investigate.

[vinny9698]

26. Could just be suicide by cop

Knowing the gig was up, he just wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.