Tying up some loose ends I suppose...

Man shot dead by FBI agent knew Boston bombing suspect, friend says

By Melissa Mahadeo

FOX 35 News Orlando

A man who was shot dead by an FBI agent late Tuesday night in Orlando knew one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, a man identified as friend of the shooting victim said Wednesday.

The suspect was identified by the FBI as Ibragim Todashev.

The FBI agent encountered Todashev while "conducting official duties," agent Dave Couvertier said in a statement. The FBI has not confirmed whether the shooting is related to the Boston bombing investigation.

A man at the scene on Peregrine Avenue near Kirkman and Vineland roads who identified himself as a friend of Todashev said Todashev knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother suspected in the April 15 bombings that killed three and injured more than 260.

Khusen Taramov said he and Todashev had no connection with the Boston bombings, but the FBI had been questioning them since then. Taramov said Todashev had lived in Boston at one point, and he and Tsarnaev were mixed-martial-arts fighters. He said the two were not friends but only acquaintances through their MMA fighting.

"He used to talk on the phone with him [Tsarnaev]," Taramov said of Todashev. "They talked last time a month ago. After the bombing, I couldn't believe it," he said.

Taramov said ever since the bombings, he and Todashev had been questioned and followed by the FBI.

"The FBI kept asking, 'What's the connection?' But there is no connection... no connection."

Taramov said Todashev had planned to return to Chechnya but canceled his tickets.

"Me and him and my friends, we knew this was going to happen. That's why he wanted to leave the country," Taramov said. "But he canceled the tickets. The FBI's been pushing him, 'Don't leave, don't leave.' So he decided to stay," he said.

Taramov said the FBI had questioned him earlier Tuesday, but he was allowed to leave. When Taramov returned, he said he found out Todashev had been shot dead, he said.

"The FBI knows what happened," Taramov said.

The FBI has not said whether the shooting is related to the Boston bombing investigation, only that they were investigating a suspect, and the suspect was shot and killed. The agency has sent a team from Washington, D.C., to review the incident. The team should arrive in Orlando within 24 hours, it said.

Read more: http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/22382085/fbi-agent-shoots-man-dead-in-orlando#ixzz2U1jOypyt