Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the Boston Bombing who died in a shootout with police, was named as a suspect in a gruesome triple homicide that occurred in 2011. Ibragim Todashev, an acquaintance of Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar, told FBI agents in May that Tamerlan was involved in the killings, and now the information is at the center of a controversy during the case against Dzhokhar.

Todashev disclosed the information during an interview with agents but was later shot and killed after he allegedly tried to attack an officer. Khusn Taramiv, a friend of Todashev’s, said he was taken in the same room for questioning about the brothers in the early morning hours of May 22nd, but was released after three hours. He never saw Todashev again.

“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back,” Taramiv said. “He felt inside he was going to get shot. I told him, ‘Everything is going to be fine, don’t worry about it.’ He said, ‘I have a really bad feeling.’”

Todashev allegedly told investigators that Tamerlan was involved in the murders of three men in an apartment outside Boston in 2011 who were found with their throats slit. One of the men, a boxer, was reportedly a friend of Tamerlan’s.

Prosecutors in the case against Dzhokhar are arguing against a request from the defense for any documents containing information about Tamerlan’s participation in the homicide to be released, saying the government has already disclosed that information to Dzhokhar.