MOSCOW — The father of a man shot to death by the FBI while being questioned about his ties to a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings said Thursday that photographs of his son’s bullet wounds suggest that he was “executed” by the FBI.
At a news conference in Moscow, Abdulbaki Todashev displayed 16 photos that, he said, showed that his son, Ibragim Todashev, had been shot seven times, including “at least one in the back and one in the back of his head.”
It was not the first time that Todashev had questioned the FBI’s account of the slaying. He previously said he could not believe his son had become violent.
Ibragim Todashev was killed during questioning in Orlando, Fla., on May 22. The FBI said investigators were questioning him about an unsolved triple homicide Sept. 11, 2011, when Todashev became violent. The agency initially said he had lunged at agents with a knife but later said it was not clear what had happened.
The Washington Post, citing unidentified law enforcement officials, reported Thursday that authorities now think Todashev was unarmed.
The FBI has been looking into the possibility that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the marathon bombing suspect killed in a confrontation with police, might have been involved in the triple homicide. Todashev, an immigrant from the restive Russian republic of Chechnya, was a friend of Tsarnaev’s, and they shared a Chechen heritage.
The FBI had no immediate response to Abdulbaki Todashev’s claims, The Associated Press reported. The agency Wednesday issued a statement saying it was conducting a review of the shooting and cannot comment “regarding investigative details” until it is done.
In an interview after his news conference, Todashev said it appeared that his son had been shot by multiple agents from both the front and back. It was not possible to independently verify the accuracy of the photographs Todashev displayed.
