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2014-03-23 Home Front: WoT

FBI agent cleared in death of man connected to Boston bombers

The FBI has cleared a federal agent in Boston in the fatal shooting of a friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev last year in Orlando, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.

The same two officials said Friday that a Florida prosecutor conducting a separate investigation into the death of Ibragim Todashev, 27, during an interrogation last May had also concluded that the agent committed no wrongdoing. But the prosecutor quickly denied that he had made a final decision.

The reports on Friday intensified frustration among those closely watching the case. Almost a year after the slaying, FBI and state officials have not said whether Todashev was armed or provided details of the alleged violent confrontation that caused an agent to shoot and kill him in his own apartment. Investigators had been interrogating him about his friendship with Tsarnaev.

On Friday, Todashev's supporters and civil liberties groups complained about the pace of the investigation and urged investigators to release their records to the public. Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said, "We still don't know what happened. Unless we have the documents that support those findings, mere conclusory statements aren't really going to satisfy the public concern."

Hassan Shibly, executive director of CAIR in Florida, said he wanted to read the full reports. However, groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the FBI's internal inquiry because documents obtained by The New York Times showed that the bureau rarely, if ever, faults agents for shootings.

Todashev's family has insisted that he did nothing wrong and that recent knee surgery had left him too weak to attack the armed agent. They have also pointed out that Todashev had voluntarily submitted to FBI questioning before agents showed up at his apartment that final time.

But Todashev had fighting skills and a violent criminal record. The mixed-martial arts fighter was arrested in 2010 in Boston for a road-rage episode and again in Florida, weeks before he was killed, for allegedly beating a man in a fight over a parking space.

Media reports have said that Todashev was ready to sign a confession implicating himself and Tamerlan Tsarnaev in an unsolved triple homicide.

Posted by ryuge 2014-03-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 When the witness or co-conspirator gets the Anwar al-Awlaki treatment, that phase of the investigation grows cold rather quickly.

Posted by Besoeker 2014-03-23 01:14|| 2014-03-23 01:14|| Front Page Top

#2 Coincedental how that happens. Three armed officers can't take into custody one unarmed suspect, who've they been talking to for over half an hour. And none of that "we're gonna go downtown and ask some questions" stuff. Right there in his apartment.

Posted by ed in texas 2014-03-23 09:46|| 2014-03-23 09:46|| Front Page Top

#3 Ruby Ridge Idaho, 1992:

FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi was indicted for manslaughter in 1997 by the Boundary County, Idaho, prosecutor just before the statute of limitations for the crime of manslaughter expired, but the trial was removed to federal court and quickly dismissed on grounds of sovereign immunity.[68] The decision to dismiss the charges was reversed by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, which held that enough uncertainty about the facts of the case existed for Horiuchi to stand trial on state manslaughter charges.[69] Ultimately, the then-sitting Boundary County Prosecutor, Brett Benson, who had defeated Woodbury in the 2000 election, decided to drop the charges because he felt it was unlikely the state could prove the case and too much time had passed. Yagman, the special prosecutor, responded that he "could not disagree more with this decision than I do."[70]

Posted by Besoeker 2014-03-23 11:31|| 2014-03-23 11:31|| Front Page Top

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