What led an FBI agent, or some other law enforcement official, to shoot and kill an unarmed man in Orlando, Florida? The man, Ibragim Todashev, was being questioned about the Boston bombing, as well as an unsolved 2011 triple murder that he may or may not have confessed to committing. Does that sound sketchy? Don’t blame me. Once he died, law enforcement started releasing anonymous, conflicting explanations so dubious that they warrant an inquiry all by themselves.

Did the dead man have a knife? A gun? A sword? None of those? Let’s run through a timeline of what we’ve been told, and then assess all the information that the FBI hasn’t released about the killing.

May 22, 2013

Ibragim Todashev is shot in the early morning hours. At least three law enforcement personnel, including at least one FBI agent, were reportedly present. Later that day, The New York Times quotes “officials” from either the Massachusetts State Police or the FBI. They say that after two hours of questioning in his apartment, Todashev “exploded and leapt at” an FBI agent. A second “law enforcement official” told the Times that “the shooting occurred after Mr. Todashev had admitted his role in the killings” — the 2011 triple murder — “and had also implicated Mr. Tsarnaev. The official said he had begun writing out a statement when he asked to take a break.”

The quote from the second official:

They got him to confess to the homicides, and they say, ‘Let’s write it down,’ and he starts writing it down. He goes to get a cigarette or something and then he goes off the deep end. I don’t know what triggered him, and he goes after the agent.

The same day, the Orlando Sentinel reports, “Federal officials said he lunged at the agent with a knife during questioning, and the agent opened fire.”

The Associated Press also reported that “law enforcement officials say a man was shot while he was being questioned in the Boston Marathon bombing case after he lunged at an FBI agent with a knife,” adding, “The FBI initially said the agent fired the fatal shot, but later in the day the bureau left open the question of who was responsible.” And Dave Couvertier, “a special agent and spokesman for the FBI’s Tampa field office,” told Yahoo News that an FBI team would be dispatched from D.C. to investigate the shooting, and that the FBI agent “sustained non-life-threatening injuries.”

The FBI also put out a statement on May 22:

The FBI is currently reviewing a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent. Based on preliminary information, the incident occurred in Orlando, Florida during the early morning hours of May 22, 2013. 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. As this incident is under review, we have no further details at this time.

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