Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton confirmed his office is reviewing the death of Ibragim Todashev, a friend of one of the Boston Marathon bombinb suspects, who was killed during an interrogation in a condo in Orlando.
Todashev, 27, was killed May 22 while he was being questioned by a Boston-based FBI agent, Massachusetts state troopers and other law-enforcement officers. The FBI has released little information about the shooting.
In a statement Thursday, Ashton's office said it has received the preliminary investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Mr. Ashton will conduct an independent review of the circumstances surrounding the use of deadly force in this case, as he does in all cases involving use of force by a law enforcement officer resulting in death," the statement said.
There is "no timetable" for the review to be completed, and the agency will not comment again until it is done, Ashton's statement said.
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed Ashton's investigation.
Initially, the FBI said Todashev initiated a "violent confrontation" during the questioning.
"During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries," the FBI said then.
The federal agency has not said whether Todashev was armed. CAIR insists that he was not.
The agency blocked the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office from releasing the autopsy report. The ACLU had asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review the case, but that agency declined last month.
Todashev is a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev who, with his brother, set off pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line of the marathon April 15, authorities say. Three people were killed and more than 250 injured.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
