An FBI Agent Shot and Killed a Tamerlan Tsarnaev Associate

Update 12:29 p.m.: The Boston Globe reports that the FBI was questioning Todashev in connection with the triple murder of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s friends in Waltham on Sept. 11, 2011, a crime for which investigators have lately also begun to suspect Tamerlan.

Update 11:35 a.m.: The FBI has expanded on its initial statement to say that two Massachusetts State Police troopers were with the FBI special agent when he shot the suspect, apparently because the suspect started to get violent:

The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual. During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Original: An FBI special agent shot and killed an acquaintance of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Orlando early Wednesday morning apparently while interviewing him in connection with the Boston Marathon attacks.

A friend whom the FBI also questioned identified the man as Ibragim Todashev, 27, an MMA fighter and a fellow Chechan Muslim who knew Tsarnaev when he lived in Boston. Details on the confrontation between Todashev and the FBI agent are slim. The FBI itself only confirmed that the agent “encountered the suspect while conducting official duties,” and that “The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time.” But an anonymous law enforcement official told ABC News that, “There was some sort of aggressive movement that led the FBI agent to believe he was under threat and he opened fire.”

Todashev’s friend, Khusen Taramov, spoke to several local news stations Wednesday, saying the FBI had questioned him and Todashev for three hours on Tuesday and that the FBI had followed both of them more than once since the marathon bombing. The questioning seems like part of the FBI’s broader effort to track down other Chechan immigrants who knew the Tsarnaevs to test the theory that they grew radical on their own and without influence from fellow U.S. residents.