An FBI agent shot and killed a man Wednesday morning in Orlando who was being interviewed about his ties to the Boston bombing suspects.
The FBI did not immediately confirm the identity of the man killed, or whether he was connected to the Boston bombings, but a friend who came forward to local news stations said the agency had been questioning the man in connection to the April attacks.
The man was originally cooperative, but died when he was shot attacking the agent, NBC News confirmed.
Khusn Taramiv, told media he was friends with the victim, and identified him as Ibragim Todashev, 27.
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Taramiv said his friend had been investigated in connection to the Boston bombings because he knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev through the mixed-martial arts community. He told media the FBI had interviewed them both for three hours Tuesday night before he -- but not Todashev -- was let go.
"(The FBI) took me and my friend [Todashev], the suspect that got killed," Taramiv said. "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 Todashev "felt inside he was going to get shot" that night, and had already undergone several rounds of questioning with the FBI.
Tamariv said he and Todashev, among other Chechnyans at the apartment complex, were first contacted by the agency the day after the Tsarnaev brothers were identified as the bombing suspects.
Todashev had apparently been planning to fly back to Chechnya Tuesday night for a trip scheduled before the bombing.
"He cancelled the tickets because, the FBI had been like, I don’t know, they’ve been pushing him, you know what I’m saying," Taramiv explained. "They’ve been pushing him they say 'don’t leave, don’t leave' so he decided to stay. But we had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen."
The FBI confirmed that a shooting involving a special agent had occurred overnight in Orlando, but little else.
"The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties," Special Agent Dave Couvertier said in a statement. "The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time. We expect to have more information later this morning."
