Reports this morning out of Orlando, Florida, confirm that a deadly shooting took place between an FBI agent and a suspect in the Boston bombing. Early reports indicate that the FBI had Ibragim Todashev in custody, who they believed to be linked to Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the Boston bombings.
NICOLE PESECKY : I’m Nicole Pesecky live in Orlando following breaking news in an FBI related shooting that happened here at this apartment complex early this morning. We do just have new information from the FBI. Confirming that the suspect killed here was someone they were looking at in connection with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, based on contact that they, that he had. They say it is possible that when he tried to leave to go back home from Chechnya, which is where his friends say he is from. He possibly found himself on the no-fly list and had to return home, and he may have been angry because of that. His friends tell me that flight was booked for yesterday and he did cancel that flight and wasn't able to return home to Chechnya to visit yesterday. I did speak to friends; they say they meet him in Chechnya, Russia. They say he knew the Boston bombing suspects because obviously they are all from the same region. He had been in contact with Tamerlan Tsarnaev right before the Boston bomings according to his friends. Ever since then they say the FBI has been following him. The friend says he was interviewed for over three hours last night along with the friend who was killed by the FBI. The FBI from Boston came down to talk to them. He says he left and the FBI continued to question that friend who was then shot and killed. The FBI not releasing a lot of information right now. Of course, we are still gathering information. New details still coming in to us.
According to a report from WESH in Orlando, a special agent was interviewing the suspect regarding his connections to bombing suspect Tsarnaev and other extremists. The suspect, who was not immediately identified by officials, was originally cooperative, died when he was shot after attacking the agent, NBC News confirmed.
A friend of the suspect, Khusn Taramiv, said his friend, 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, was being investigated as part of the Boston bombings and knew Tsarnaev because both were MMA fighters.
Taramiv claims he and Todashev were interviewed by the FBI for nearly three hours on Tuesday.
"(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back," Taramiv said.