FBI Says Ibragim Todashev Was About to Sign a Confession
Ibragim Todashev, the first player in Wednesday's strange day of terrorism and then racism (ahead of Obama's big talk on terrorism today) was apparently about to sign a confession to the 2011 triple murder in Massachusetts when he "just went crazy."
One FBI agent received minor abrasions from the knife attack, which was stopped when Todashev was shot in the head. The FBI is saying this was only moments before Todashev was going to sign a confession that would have implicated both him and suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the 2011 triple homicide.
Reniya Manukyan, the estranged wife of Todashev, said her husband "had nothing to hide" and was cooperating fully with the FBI over the course of several weeks as they repeatedly interviewed him.
A roommate of Todashev, Khusen Taramov, told reporters that Todashev had even canceled a flight home to his native Chechnya so he could speak with investigators.
"He didn't flip out," said Taramov. "I think something went wrong there. I think they just shot him. He didn't do anything. I know him. He just wanted everything to be over."
Manukyan's wife stressed Todashev's distance from Tsarnaev. "They weren't close to each other. They weren't friends or anything," she said.
Todashev has a history of violence, however. He had been recently arrested for aggravated battery.
“The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing (Todashev) ... when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual,” the FBI said after the attack. “... The individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries.”
The FBI has sent a team of investigators to look into the fatal shooting. The investigators will look into just how a man who was being interviewed for several hours came to possess a knife, and why, even with several officers (and other unidentified law enforcement personnel) in the room with a suspected murderer with terrorist connections, lethal force was used to stop a knife attack.