Abdul-Baki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev, who was shot by an FBI agent a week ago while being quizzed over his links to the Boston bombers, revealed the extent of his son’s injuries in photographs of his dead body today.
Abdul-Baki Todashev called for an investigation and possible legal action against the agent involved at a press conference in Moscow where he showed the images of his son’s body lying in a morgue with up to seven gunshot wounds, including one to the back of the head.
His angry calls for justice came as a report claimed the 27-year-old native Chechen was unarmed in the clash with a federal agent in Florida on May 22.
Previous reports claimed the US citizen went for the agent with a knife while being interrogated in his home.
However, a report by the Washington Post yesterday cited law enforcement officials saying he had no weapon.
Ibragim Todashev allegedly did become violent when police quizzed him over links to Tamerlan Tsarnaev and an unsolved 2011 triple homicide but he did not have a knife as previously claimed.
“Today I want justice. I want an investigation, so that these people [the FBI] are sued under US laws,” Abdul-Baki Todashev said.
“These are not FBI agents. These are bandits and they must appear in court.”
Abdul-Baki Todashev said he received the 16 images of his son’s body from a friend in the US.
Abdul-Baki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev, revealed the extent of his son’s injuries
Ibragim Todashev is pictured lying in a Florida morgue. His father claims they show brutal injuries from up to seven bullets including one to the back of the head.
“This is not a shot that you fire when you come under attack. This is a shot you fire to execute someone,” he said.
“Couldn’t they just handcuff him? At the very least, they could have wounded him in the foot or shoulder. And here he was – killed execution style.”
He added that his son must have had information they didn’t want him to reveal.
“They silenced him,” he added.
Abdul-Baki Todashev now plans to journey to the US to pick up his son’s body and said he had been to the US embassy in Moscow to apply for a visa to do so.
Authorities were pressuring Ibragim Todashev to make a full confession to the murders of three men found in an apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001.
It is known Tamerlan Tsarnaev was close friends with one of the victims and the FBI have been looking into whether he was involved.
Law enforcement sources told NBC that Ibragim Todashev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev carried out the 2011 killings when a drug deal that turned violent. The suspects didn’t want the three victims to be able to identify them, so they slit their throats, according to the network.
It is that evidence which apparently led them to Ibragim Todashev and his Orlando apartment not far from Universal Studios on May 22.
He had questioned for some hours before he allegedly flipped and the shooting came as one agent stepped out of the room, leaving Ibragim Todashev alone with one officer, the Post said.
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It emerged today that Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife is Katherine Russell, who converted to Islam for him, and they have a three-year-old daughter called Zahara.
Last night, Katherine Russell’s parents, Judith and Warren, issued an emotional statement following Boston Marathon attack that left three dead and 176 injured, reading: “Our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child.
“We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. In the aftermath of the Patriot’s Day horror, we know that we never really knew Tamerlane Tsarnaev.
“Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted.”
The 26-year-old Chechen – who was shot dead by cops last night – was regularly seen at Katherine Russell’s family home in Rhode Island.
Their home was raided by the FBI and cops before dawn this morning.
At 5 p.m. today, Katherine Russell, 24, was driven back to the house by a relative and flanked by two SUVs being driven by agents from the Department of Homeland Security.
It appears that Katherine Russell – who also uses the last name Tsarnaeva – converted to Islam shortly after starting school at Suffolk University in Boston, to marry Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
After converting to Islam, the young woman used to dress in the Islamic style, neighbors said. Her hair was covered with a white headscarf and she was wearing very baggy, flowy clothing.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev got his American citizenship on September 11, 2012. He traveled to Russia last year and returned to the US six months later, government officials told The Associated Press today.
According to the website spotcrime.com, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested for domestic violence in July 2009 after assaulting his girlfriend.
Katherine Russell converted to Islam to marry Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Katherine Russell, who has two younger sisters Anna and Becca, grew up with parents Judith and Warren in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, before moving to Boston for college.
Local reporter Ted Nesi of WPRI-TV 12 this afternoon tweeted: “Suffolk U. confirms to me that a Katherine O. Russell of No. Kingstown RI was a student there from Fall 2007-Spring 2010. Did not graduate.”
Neighbors said that Warren Russell works as a physician, while his wife, Judith, is a nurse.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev , the older brother of 19-year-old Dzhokhar, who was captured last night after a massive all-out manhunt in Boston at its suburbs, died Thursday evening after an armed battle with police in Watertown.
Meanwhile, the brothers’ aunt Maret Tsarnaeva, who works as a doctor in Canada, was insistent as she told reporters in Toronto today that her nephew was in love with his wife and daughter.
“He has a wife in Boston and from a Christian family, so you can’t tie it to religion,” Maret Tsarnaeva said.
“At that age all they want is love, so he found his love, he married, he had a daughter, and he was very happy about his daughter.”
However, Maret Tsarnaeva admitted Tamerlan “seemingly did not find himself yet in America, because it’s not easy”.
Demanding proof the brothers were the bombers, Maret Tsarnaeva said: “We’re talking about three dead people, 100-something injured, and I do not believe, I just do not believe our boys would do that … I don’t know them in the way that they could be capable of this.”
Maret Tsarnaeva said the boys’ father, her brother Anzor Tsarnaev, had high expectations for his sons, especially Tamerlan, and was upset when he found out Tamerlan had dropped out of university.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev wasn’t a devout practicing Muslim, “but just recently, maybe two years ago, he started praying five times a day”, she said.
Maret Tsarnaeva said her brother’s family came to the US in 2002 after she helped them apply for refugee status. She said the family also has two sisters who live in Boston.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two Chechen brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombings, once dreamed of representing the US as a boxer, but over the past year, he had turned to radical Islam and got on the path of Jihad.
Officials say Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar – refugees from the Caucasus region – were the men behind the horrific terrorist attack that took the lives of three and left 176 injured during the Boston Marathon on Monday.
Hours before his death, Tamerlan Tsarnaev called his uncle Alvi Tsarnaev and asked for forgiveness – revealing the news of his young family.
Alvi Tsarnaev told The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News that his nephew phoned him Thursday night for the first time in about two years.
The call came at 7 p.m., just a couple of hours before Tamerlan was shot dead.
“He said, <<I love you and forgive me>>,” said Alvi Tsarnaev, who lives in Montgomery Village, Maryland.
“We were not talking for a long time because there were some problems,” Alvi Tsarnaev said, without elaborating.
“We were not happy with each other.”
They spoke for about five minutes, he said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who is Muslim, started out by saying, “Salam Aleikum”, an Arabic greeting meaning “peace on you”. He then praised his uncle for keeping up with his Muslim prayers.
They talked about family and Alvi Tsarnaev said: “I told him I was praying to Allah, not drinking, not smoking, and he told me he was happy.
“He was asking, <<Did you pay your mortgage?>> I told him I was trying to pay. I asked him what he was doing. He said, <<I fix cars, I got married, got a baby>>.”
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s nonchalant attitude in the wake of Monday’s attack was witnessed on his Twitter page.
At 5 p.m. on Monday – just hours after he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were caught on surveillance footage coolly walking away from the bomb site – he tweeted: “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people.”
The next day Dzhokhar Tsarnaev replied to a tweet claiming one of the fatalities in the bombings was a woman whose fiancé was proposing to her.
“Fake story” he wrote on the social media website.
The same day the suspect added: “I’m a stress free kind of guy.”
According to the page, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a 9/11 denier and in a chilling post in August wrote: “Boston marathon isn’t a good place to smoke tho.”
The account, confirmed to friends to belong to the terror suspect, makes for haunting reading.
Just months before the tweet Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said he was changing majors to try and become a nurse and talked about his work “saving lives” as a Harvard lifeguard.
“I didn’t become a lifeguard just to chill and get paid, I do it for the people, saving brings me joy,” he wrote on May 29.
However, it has emerged Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sacked last summer after he suddenly stopped turning up for shifts, according to a Buzzfeed report.
The Chechen has been described by friends as a “careful and jovial” student, who has lived in the US for a decade and partied “like a normal American kid” – painting a conflicting picture of a man now accused of terrorism.
It appears Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became increasingly radicalized by his older brother Tamerlan with whom he is said to have carried out the deadly attack at Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 180.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s cousin, Zaur, told the Boston Globe that he “used to warn Dzhokhar that Tamerlan was up to no good” while Tamerlan’s boxing coach said the younger brother would watch him train, “he idolized him”, according to the Boston Herald.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Twitter account portrays two contrasting pictures and hints at a man who suddenly changed sometime last year.
Many of his posts are innocuous references to pop culture, college and women.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posts hip hop lyrics, talks about his love for TV show Breaking Bad and chats to college friends.
But others are serious and appear to suggests of events to come.
In 2012, April 21, he wrote in Russian: “I will perish young.”
Last month Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tweeted: “Never underestimate the rebel with a cause.”
Last year, in a July 17 post at 10.45 a.m., he wrote: “3rd zombie apocalypse dream in a span of like 2 weeks, I’m no golden boy but maybe, just maybe we should be expecting something soon, tbc..”
This was the same day his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is believed to have returned to the US after a mysterious six month absence.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also made plain his feelings on 9/11.
Family and friends said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeared to be a party-loving guy, who was never a troublemaker
He also posted: “Idk [I don’t know] why it’s hard for many of you to accept that 9/11 was an inside job, I mean I guess f*** the facts y’all are some real #patriots #gethip.”
Other post reads: “September 10th baby, you know what tomorrow is. Party at my house! #thingsyoudontyellwhenenteringaroom.”
Reports yesterday suggested Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had convinced his mother too.
A former client of Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told the Huffington Post the mother of the bombers was also a denier.
Alyssa Kilzner said: “It’s real. She said, <<My son knows all about it. You can read on the Internet>>.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also posted pictures of himself in Times Square and wrote about visiting New York in November.
Another particularly hateful comment reads: “You guys know that the suicide rate for active duty american soldiers is at an all time high for 2012, a suicide a day, whats the #problem?”
The terror suspect also wrote: “A decade in America already, I want out.”
The context of the Boston Marathon message is not known as the recipient’s account and responses are locked and therefore private.
But half the conversation can be seen on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ‘s site.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was attending the University of Massachusetts after graduating from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, former high school of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
Up until Monday, family and friends said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeared to be a party-loving guy, who was never a troublemaker and appeared grateful to America for taking in his family.
His father described him as a “true angel” yesterday as news emerged his two sons were terror suspects wanted for the atrocious attack on Boston on Monday.
Anzor Tsarnaev spoke with The Associated Press by telephone from the Russian city of Makhachkala.
“My son is a true angel,” he said.
“Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the US. He is such an intelligent boy.”
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were legal permanent residents of the US who hailed from Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency stemming from separatist wars.
But the two brothers took to their adoptive country very differently.
It appears Tamerlan Tsarnaev became radicalized in recent months. Despite his many years here, he said he had “one single American friend”.
Five months ago, Tamerlan Tsarnaev created a YouTube playlist dedicated to terrorism. Named simply “Terrorists”, it included a pair of videos, which are now no longer available.
Among the songs was one called I will dedicate my life to Jihad.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev also featured videos recorded by recent converts to Islam.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the other hand, who grew up in the US from a much younger age, seemed to have entirely immersed himself in American life.
High school friends expressed their shock that he would have anything to do with terrorism.
One friend told CNN: “He is a normal kid, he parties, he sometimes smokes – if you know what I mean. He was as American as I am – he was born and raised here. This kid was a walking angel.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was born in Kyrgyzstan after the family fled Chechnya. The family, which also included two daughters, Bella and Amina, had refugee status.
Both sons had immense pride in their “home country” with Dzhokhar describing himself as Chechen and speaking the language.
The family moved around Eastern Europe with their young family.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev went to a school in Makhachkala, the capital city of the Republic of Dagestan, between 1999-2001.
His former teachers at his first school described him as a “normal child” yesterday.
“He arrived at our school in the first form and departed in the second,” Irina Bandurina, the secretary at Makhachkala’s School No.1, told RT.
“They arrived from Kyrgyzstan and departed to the US. I’m telling you they lived here for a year. Not the whole year. They arrived at the school in 2001 and departed in March 2002 … There were four of them – two sisters and two brothers… It’s written here that they are from Kyrgyzstan.”
In high school Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a young wrestling star – a member of the team for three years and captain for two.
Sanjaya Lamichhame, a team-mate, refused to speak against his friend and said: “He always motivated me. He was a very nice guy. I knew him for four or five years.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also showed intellectual promise – winning a scholarship of $2,500 from the city of Cambridge.
His page on Vkontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, shows pictures of him with friends and posing for the camera.
On that site Dzhokhar Tsarnaev mentions his interest in Islam but makes no suggestion he was radicalized.
It has now been overrun with people asking him how he could have committed the bombing, and wishing him dead.
The first brush with police for the family appears to been have made in June 2012, when the boys’ mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was arrested for stealing $1,624 in clothes from Lord and Taylor.
His high school friend Eric Mercado said there was only one time he remembered Dzhokhar Tsarnaev discussing terrorism.
“A friend of mine remembered a conversation he had had with Dzhokhar. It was along the lines of when justified, terrorism is not necessarily a bad thing.”
“It was a red flag but people say things all the time and you don’t take it out of context. You don’t believe someone’s going to be a terrorist because of these conversations,” he said.
Eric Mercado said friends were in disbelief when they identified Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from FBI pictures by his trademark backwards white cap.
