Abdul-Baki Todashev holds a photo he claims is of his dead son Ibragim Todashev. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Why the FBI Shouldn't Be Trusted to Investigate the Death of Ibragim Todashev
For at least 20 years, its inquiries have never found fault with a fatal shot taken by an agent.
Almost a month ago, the FBI shot and killed a 27-year-old man, Ibragim Todashev, during an interview at his Orlando, Florida apartment. In the aftermath of the shooting, various law enforcement officials gave wildlyconflicting accounts of what happened in the moments before his death: some said he was unarmed; others said he was armed, but those sources disagreed about the weapon. Did he reach for a gun? A samurai sword? A knife? A metal pole? A broomstick? Meanwhile, despite what appear to be several authorized leaks of information about the case -- the most prominent appeared in The New York Times -- "the FBI has refused to say if he was armed or to describe the violent confrontation they say led a Boston agent to kill him," Maria Sacchetti reports in the Boston Globe. "And the agency has barred the medical examiner's office from saying how many times he was shot." Her article goes on to note and document that the FBI's refusal to go on the record with details "contrasts sharply with past shootings involving agents."
Due to the unusual circumstances surrounding the shooting and the suspicious inconsistencies in accounts by law enforcement, the ACLU, the Counsel on American Islamic Relations, and various newspaper editorial boards have called for an independent investigation.