ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — An advocacy group is demanding a civil rights investigation into the death of a Chechen immigrant who was shot to death by authorities in central Florida while being questioned about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Wednesday his group is asking the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division to open a probe into how 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev died last week.
CAIR spokesman Hassan Shibly said he wants to know if excessive force was used or whether Todashev’s rights were violated.
The FBI said Todashev was killed during a violent confrontation while he was being questioned by an FBI agent and two Massachusetts state troopers about his ties to slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as well as about a 2011 triple slaying in Massachusetts.
The medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide.