A man with connections to the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was fatally shot after he attacked an FBI agent during questioning in an Orlando condo complex, authorities said.
NBC News has learned that as investigators interviewed Ibragim Todashev, 27, about his connection to Tsarnaev, he confessed to a triple murder in Massachusetts in 2011. Three men were found with their throats slit and their bodies covered in marijuana.
According to a statement released by the FBI, during the interview Todashev became violent as he was signing a written statement based on the confession, and he attacked the agent with a knife.
Todashev was shot and killed.
On Wednesday, there was crime scene tape around the complex, which is located close to Universal Studios.
Todashev's friend Khusen Taramov was with him on Tuesday night when they noticed agents tailing them.
He said the FBI knew he bought plane tickets to go back to Chechnya.
"They've been pushing him. You know what I'm saying. They said don't leave. So, he decided to stay," said Taramov.
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The FBI didn't suspect Todashev of playing a role in the bombings but wanted to know more about his connection to Tsarnaev, the bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police.
Taramov said Todashev and Tsarnaev were friends, were both from Chechnya and hung out together in Boston, but that's it.
He said Todashev gave him his parents' phone numbers so he could call them in case something happened to him.
"But we had a feeling, worst case scenario that something like that's gonna happen, and it happened eventually, and we tried to avoid it," he said.
NBC 6 spoke with a dozen neighbors who said they knew nothing of Todashev, except that he was quiet and kept to himself.
Ida Bennett said she only had one conversation with Todashev in over a year that he lived in the neighborhood. It was about a recent injury Todashev sustained in an accident.
Bennett said she asked him, “‘what happened to you honey?’ He said, ‘No, I had an accident,’” she recalled.
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