FBI Agent Involved in Fatal Shooting I.D.’d, Had Short But Troubled History at Oakland P.D.

Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Tamelan
Tsarnaev, the suspected Boston bomber who was killed in a shoot-out
with cops, was shot to death by an FBI agent in his Orlando,
Florida, home after agreeing to be interviewed by them. Todashev
was also suspected of a 2011 triple homicide in Boston that cops

may have written off as drug related, and the FBI says he
admitted to it before their agent killed him.

The FBI determined the shooting of Todashev in his apartment
during questioning was justified, keeping the agency’s two-decade
long streak of justified shootings (about
150 since 1993) intact.

Neither the FBI nor officials in Massachusetts (two state
troopers were with the FBI agent during the shooting) and Florida
would release the name of the FBI agent, but the Boston
Globe discovered his identity, and a troubling past in law
enforcement.
The Globe reports:

The Globe obtained their names by removing improperly
created redactions from an electronic copy of Florida prosecutor
Jeffrey L. Ashton’s report — which in March found the shooting of
Todashev justified — and then verifying their identities through
interviews and multiple government records. Those records include
voting, birth, and pension documents.

That research identifies the FBI agent as Aaron McFarlane,
41.

McFarlane’s full name and birth date on records in Massachusetts
and New Hampshire match that of the Oakland police officer who was
involved in several controversies during his four years with that
police force. He retired with a pension of more than $52,000
annually for the rest of his life.

In California, lawyers who had sued McFarlane in Oakland were
stunned that the FBI later hired him.

“I would be shocked to learn that the Aaron McFarlane we sued a
decade ago could have gone on to have a career with the FBI,” said
Ian Kelley, a San Francisco lawyer who sued McFarlane on behalf of
a man, Michael Cole, who accused McFarlane and another officer of
beating him.

The Globe reports that while in Oakland, McFarlane was
the target of two police brutality lawsuits (costing Oakland at
least $32,500 in settlements), four internal affairs
investigations, and once plead the Fifth during a police corruption
trial in which prosecutors accused him of falsifying police
reports. All this, mind you, in four years. McFarlane went on to
collect a $52,000 a year pension after “retiring” ten years ago at
31.

He was hired by the FBI five years ago, but continues to collect
a pension, which he is promised for life. McFarlane was employed
with the Oakland Police Department while it was embroiled in the
largest corruption scandal in its history, one which cost the city
$10 million and for which the department is still under federal
oversight. He is the son of a former police officer.

When Oakland pays their police officers a higher pension than
the median household income in the U.S., it shouldn’t be surprising
they’re in a
fiscal mess. Occupy Oakland has spent the last few years
instead
blaming capitalism for the city’s problems.