A Florida prosecutor has cleared an FBI agent of any criminal wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a Chechen man as he was being questioned about a Boston Marathon bombing suspect.
In a letter to FBI Director Comey, Florida State Attorney Jeff Ashton said he won't bring charges against the agent who shot Ibragim Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter.
'My conclusion, based upon the facts presented to me in this investigation, is that the actions of the Special Agent of the FBI were justified in self-defense and in defense of another,' Ashton wrote. 'Therefore, a complete review of the investigation leads me to conclude that criminal charges against the Special Agent of the FBI are not warranted, and that the Office of the State Attorney's review of this incident is complete.'
The circumstances surrounding Todashev's death have remained mysterious: Officials initially said the man had lunged at an agent with a knife while FBI agents and Massachusetts state troopers were questioning him about his friendship with suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Later, they said it was no longer clear what happened.
Last week, Todashev's widow spoke to CBS station WBZ-TV exclusively by phone from Russia.
'No. I don't believe it,' Reni Manukyan said of the initial reports of the investigation. 'Besides that, there were so many different versions of what happened. They had released so many different things that he was with a gun, with a knife, with a grate, with a broomstick, with a chair.'
The Justice Department also has been investigating and is expected to release its findings on Tuesday.
Todashev's father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, insisted last year that his son was unarmed and said that U.S. agents killed his son 'execution-style.' At news conference in Moscow, Abdul-Baki Todashev showed journalists 16 photographs that he said were of his son in a Florida morgue. He said his son had six gunshot wounds to his torso and one to the back of his head and the pictures were taken by his son's friend, Khusen Taramov.
Last year, former CBS News senior correspondent John Miller discussed the questions regarding reasonable use of force in the standoff that led to Todashev's death.
'I was trained in the FBI policy on use of force,' Miller said. 'The standard is if you believe you or your partner or somebody with you is going to be the victim of either serious bodily harm or possibly death, you have the right to use deadly physical force.'
Federal prosecutors have said in court filings that Todashev named Tsarnaev as a participant in an earlier triple homicide in Massachusetts. The filings were made in the case against Tsarnaev's brother, surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
According to the filings, Todashev told investigators Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in a triple slaying in Waltham on Sept. 11, 2011.
In that case, three men were found in an apartment with their necks slit and their bodies reportedly covered with marijuana. One of the victims was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The filing was prosecutors' attempt to block Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from getting certain information from authorities, including investigative documents associated with the Waltham slayings.
Authorities allege that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, and 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens from Russia, planned and carried out the twin bombings near the finish of the marathon on April 15. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction and 16 other charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gun battle with police as authorities closed in on the brothers several days after the bombings.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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