FBI Agent Cleared In Shooting Death of Ibragim Todashev
The FBI did no wrong when its agents shot Ibragim Todashev to death last May 22 while interrogating him in his apartment in Tampa.
That’s the conclusion of two different investigations of the incidents—conducted by the FBI and Florida State Prosecutor Jeff Ashton—according to reports leaked to several major news outlets today.
Todashev was shot by a Boston FBI agent after allegedly attacking a Massachusetts state trooper during questioning, the FBI has said; pictures of his body released by his family show that he was shot seven times. The interrogation was the latest of many Todashev had undergone after the FBI identified him as an associate of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. But at the time of his death, Todashev was being questioned about another crime—an unsolved 2011 triple murder in Waltham. The FBI has said that just before he was killed, Todashev had implicated himself and Tsarnaev in the slayings of three men.
Ashton’s office mounted an independent investigation, though Ashton’s chief assistant Richard Walsh told Boston magazine that he was working “in coordination” with the FBI. Meanwhile, the FBI had begun its own internal investigation into the shooting.
When it comes to shootings by agents, the FBI’s record is so far unbroken—in more than 150 shooting investigations, the New York Times reported last June, the agent was cleared of wrongdoing. In fact, they haven’t found a single agent at fault in a shooting death or injury since at least 1983.
And it doesn’t seem as if Todashev’s death will break that streak. CNN and the Washington Post today reported that the FBI report will find no wrongdoing.
After a lengthy review process, the Department of Justice will release FBI’s report next week, according to CNN. Ashton’s report will also be released that week, his office said in a press release.
Ashton’s office told Boston magazine that they will be granting reporters interviews on a limited basis—but then denied repeated requests for an interview.
