Ibragim Todashev is seen in a mug shot on May 4 after his arrest for aggravated battery in Orlando. Todashev, who was being questioned in Orlando by authorities in the Boston bombing probe, was fatally shot on May 22, when he initiated a violent confrontation, FBI officials said.

The father of the man who was  killed by FBI agents — after allegedly admitting he and Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev committed a triple homicide in 2011 — claims that his son is innocent and federal investigators made up their case against him.

Investigators say Ibragim Todashev told them on Wednesday that he and Tsarnaev killed three people in a Boston suburb two years ago in what sources say was a drug ripoff gone bad.

Law enforcement officials said that, while confessing to the slayings, Todashev was shot and killed after attacking an agent with a knife.

But Todashev's father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, told NBC News on Thursday that the FBI "made up their accusations" and that the American investigators are biased against Chechens.

"My son did not kill anybody ... they [the FBI] were eager to present my son as Tsarnaev’s friend. My son could never commit a crime, I know my son well," Abdul-Baki Todashev said in a phone interview from Chechnya.

Investigators questioned his 27-year-old son in Orlando, Fla. as part of the FBI’s effort to find anyone who had any contact with the Tsarnaev brothers. Todashev was not considered a suspect in the Boston bombings that killed three people and injured scores more last month.

What is still not clear is why Todashev would have implicated himself and Tsarnaev in the unsolved murders.

Investigators say he confessed to the agent in Florida that he played a role in a triple murder in which three men were discovered slain in an apartment in Waltham, Mass. Brendan Mess, 25; Raphael Teken, 37; and Eric Weissman, 31, were found with their throats cut in September of 2011, and their bodies were covered with marijuana. Law enforcement sources told NBC News Wednesday that the slayings were simply the result of a drug deal gone bad.

No suspects had been arrested in that case, and Waltham prosecutors said Thursday they still consider it an "open and active" investigation.

The parents of suspected marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have also maintained that their children are innocent. Though sources have told NBC News that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev scribbled his reasoning behind the bombing in a boat he was hiding in before his capture by police.

Abdul-Baki Todashev said he found out that his son was killed when a family member saw it on the Internet. He said his son and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were not close friends, but did say they were acquaintances that went to the same gym.

His son had a green card, he said, and recently had knee surgery that delayed a planned trip back to Russia.

"He told me that the state paid his medical insurance and that they did not want him to leave the country until he compensated (sic). But now I think may be FBI took his air ticket from him," Todashev said.

Less than a day after the shooting an FBI review team from Washington was on the ground in Florida to investigate the death, officials said. Witnesses in the room when the shooting occurred will be questioned, including two Massachusetts State Police troopers.

Meanwhile on Thursday, the federal magistrate judge handling the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case rescheduled a probable cause hearing originally set for May 30 -- the next legal step -- for July 10th at 11 am.

The hearing was originally set for May 30th, but both prosecutors and defense lawyers asked for a delay, citing what they called "the complex factual and legal issues present in this case and the need for adequate time to obtain and review evidence."

NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report

This story was originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 7:28 PM EDT

A Texas deputy who was shot by a wanted Colorado man says he only remembers bits of what can be seen in video from his dashboard camera.

Evan Spencer Ebel, who was suspected in the slaying of Colorado's prisons chief and a pizza deliveryman, shot Montague County Deputy James Boyd three times at point-blank range during a traffic stop.

Montague County Sheriff Paul Cunningham on Wednesday released dash-cam video of the March 21 shooting.

The video shows Boyd stopping the car for driving in the left-hand lane and not passing. As soon as Boyd approaches the car, Ebel can be seen quickly shooting Boyd three times -- twice in the chest and once in the head. He then speeds away.

Read more from NBCDFW.com

After a minute, drivers stop to help Boyd and call emergency crews.

"I can remember stopping the car, making the approach, knowing something's not right," said Boyd, who has been recovering at a rehabilitation center in Dallas.

"I can remember being shot, and that's about the point I blacked out for 30, 45 seconds," he said.

"The only thing I can consciously remember is seeing the gun shoot off at me," he said.

Boyd is scheduled to go back to work on Friday, nearly two months after the shooting.

Even now, the video is still hard to watch, the sheriff said.

"I mean, I don't know what else to say-- I was mad," Cunningham said. "That was somebody [who] hurt one of my deputies. You know, you want to strike back."

"It's hard every time you watch it," he said, choking back tears. "You can almost feel the bullets when you're watching it."

Ebel was killed later that day in a shootout in Wise County after the high-speed chase.

Boyd said he's just grateful that his encounter with Ebel wasn't worse.

"If it would've gone one way or another, I could be dead," he said. "It was a very close call. It just wasn't my time."

John Raoux / AP

An FBI investigator walks to the apartment where a man was shot by an FBI agent, on May 22, in Orlando, Fla.

Dead Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and another man — who was killed by the FBI on Wednesday — murdered three people in Massachusetts after a drug deal went wrong in 2011, law enforcement sources tell NBC News.

Sources say that what began as a drug ripoff ended in a triple homicide when Tsarnaev and friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them.

Todashev was killed by a federal agent while giving a statement on his role on Wednesday in Orlando, Fla.

The man who was shot, Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a knife while confessing to the slayings. He was not suspected of having played any role in the bombing that killed three people and injured scores more in April, but he did confess to being involved in a brutal Boston-area slaying two years ago, investigators said.

AP Photo / Orange County Corrections Department

In this May 4, 2013 police mug provided by the Orange County Corrections Department in Orlando, Fla., shows Ibragim Todashev after his arrest for aggravated battery in Orlando.

Law enforcement officials said Todashev was being questioned as part of the FBI’s effort to find and talk to anyone who had any contact with Tsarnaev, the older bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police.

The shooting occurred in the early morning hours on Wednesday, the FBI said in a statement.

“The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual,” the statement said.

“During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries,” according to the statement.

It's not clear who shot Todashev, officials say, because -- while he was being questioned by an FBI agent -- officers from the Massachusetts state police and the Orlando police department were also present in the house where the interrogation was going on.

Todashev, they say, had spent some time in the Boston area, where he was a mixed martial arts fighter, and knew Tsarnaev there.  Investigators say he confessed to the agent in Florida that he played a role in a triple murder in 2011 in which three men were discovered slain in an apartment in Waltham, Mass. 

Brendan Mess, 25; Raphael Teken, 37; and Eric Weissman, 31, were found with their throats cut in September of 2011, and their bodies were covered with marijuana. No suspects had been arrested in that case.

A spokesperson for the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office, which is investigating the three deaths, said that the office does not discuss ongoing investigations. Relatives for the three men did not immediately return requests for comment.

Officials say FBI agents were questioning Todashev on Tuesday. He was cooperative at first, they say, but later that night, he attacked the agent with a knife. Officials say Todashev became violent as he was about to sign a written statement based on his confession.

The officials say Todashev had some connections with radical Chechen rebels, but they say it's not clear whether he had any role in radicalizing Tsarnaev.

A friend of Todashev told NBC News affiliate WESH that he was being questioned along with the man who was shot due to their connections to the mixed martial arts community in Boston.

“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,” friend Khusn Taramiv, 27, told WESH.

Todashev was arrested for aggravated battery on May 4, 2013 after getting into a fight over a parking spot with another man at Premium Outlets in Orlando, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit.

Todashev said that he pushed the other man after he “got into his face,” according to the affidavit. The man’s son then “came at him swinging,” Todashev told police. The 5’9”, 160-pound Todashev admitted to police that he was a former mixed martial arts fighter, according to the arrest affidavit.

“This skill puts his fighting ability way above that of a normal person,” the arresting officer wrote in the affidavit.

Todashev was transported to the booking and release center without incident, according to the affidavit. His Miranda warning was read but not invoked, the document says. He was released May 5 on a $3,500 surety bond, according to the Orange County Corrections Department.

The man was born in Russia and had U.S. citizenship, according to the affidavit.

A spokesman for the Orlando Police Department referred all questions regarding the shooting to the FBI.

An FBI incident review team was dispatched from Washington, D.C., and was expected to arrive in Orlando within 24 hours, FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier said on Wednesday morning.

Todashev was also arrested in downtown Boston in 2010 following a fender bender involving his van and a car carrying two women. Todashev had to be restrained by witnesses after he aggressively confronted the women, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office told NBC affiliate WHDH. Witnesses said Todashev was clearly the aggressor, and there was physical contact between everyone involved.

However, authorities say there were no injuries and no charges were pressed.

Todashev had been in the country since 2006.

Related:

• Judge agrees to delay in case of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev
• Boston bombing survivor Marc Fucarile determined to leave hospital
• Injured marathon bombing survivors' graduation walk a 'milestone' in recovery

NBC's Andrew Rafferty contributed to this report

This story was originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 4:53 PM EDT

Sheriffs in Colorado filed a federal lawsuit Friday ahead of the implementation of new state gun laws that broaden background checks and limit the size of ammunition magazines, saying that the bills would be nearly impossible to enforce.

The laws "severely restrict citizens' rights to own, use, manufacture, sell, or transfer firearms and firearms accessories," the sheriffs said in their complaint in the U.S. district court.

"This is a bipartisan effort," said Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith. "These are Democratic sheriffs and Republican sheriffs who came together."

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, magazine-maker Magpul Industries, and the Colorado State Shooting Association were among other groups that filed suit alongside sheriffs against the laws, which are set to take effect June 1.

Scarred by some of the deadliest incidents of gun violence in American history, including last year's Aurora movie theater shooting and the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, the state's gun control bills gained national attention as various states and the federal government debated new gun restrictions.

The sheriffs said in the filing that their ability to enforce the laws, particularly the ban on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds, will be constrained by other concerns.

"The Sheriffs have limited resources and limited public funds to spend on investigations," they said in the court documents. "They cannot expend those resources to conduct investigations that would be necessary to monitor compliance with the new magazine restrictions. No documentation has ever been required for the retail or private purchase of magazines, making it a practical impossibility for the Sheriffs to determine whether one of the many magazines already in existence was obtained after the effective date."

The sheriffs also said that Coloradans would find it difficult to comply with expanded background check regulations that would require transfers between individuals to be conducted through a federally licensed firearms dealer. That's because many licensed firearms dealers in the state "are unwilling to conduct the transfer under such conditions," they argued.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers released a statement on Friday saying that his office would pursue court rulings on the gun legislation “as expeditiously as possible.”

“Colorado citizens, and law-abiding gun owners in particular, deserve such clarification,” Suthers said in the statement.

The state has 64 sheriffs, said Chris Olson, executive director of the County Sheriffs of Colorado. The lawsuit is being brought forth “by individual sheriffs” and his organization is not a party to the suit, he said.

At least one lawman has said that deciding which laws are constitutional should stay out of the hands of Colorado’s sheriffs.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, whose county includes the Aurora movie theater where 12 people were killed last year, released a statement in January pushing back against sheriffs who said they would not enforce new gun laws.

“Public safety professionals serving in the executive branch do not have the constitutional authority, responsibility, and in most case, the credentials to determine the constitutionality of any issue,” Robinson said in the statement. “Law enforcement officials should leave it to the courts to decide whether a law is constitutional or not.”

Robinson identified himself as a supporter of Second Amendment rights in the statement, and said he would like to see better mental health services and stricter penalties for people who commit gun crimes.

Related:

• Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper signs landmark gun-control bills
• Colorado sheriff blasts colleagues over refusal to enforce gun laws
• After Newtown, states slow to embrace new gun laws

Two South Carolina children are dead, their father is hospitalized and their mother is accused of murder.

An autopsy report released by the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday said the children – Sawyer Simpson, 5, and Carly Simpson, 7, -- were shot multiple times, NBC station WYFF in Greenville, S.C., reported.

An arrest warrant obtained by the station shows that Suzanna Simpson, known as Anna, is charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder of her husband, Michael. 

Suzanna Simpson was under guard at a Greenville hospital, the station reported.

Deputies responding to a vehicle crash in the tiny community of Dacusville just after 6 a.m. on Tuesday found a pickup truck on the side of the road with Anna Simpson behind the wheel, Pickens County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Creed Hashe told the station.

Using the registration document for the truck, deputies went to the Simpson home in the Cherokee Trail area of the town and found the children dead and their father, Michael Simpson, severely wounded.

Michael Simpson remains in critical condition with life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to the sheriff’s office. 

Suzanna Simpson will be booked into county jail as soon as she is released from the hospital, the sheriff’s office said.

A representative with Pickens County Schools, John Eby, told the station Sawyer was a kindergartner and Carly was in first grade. Anna Simpson was a very active parent, Eby said.

New Orleans Police via AP

19-year-old Akein Scott has been named a suspect in the New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting that left 19 people wounded.

New Orleans police and federal authorities were searching early Tuesday for a young man who is suspected of opening fire at a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, wounding 19.

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas identified the suspect late Monday as Akein Scott, 19, of New Orleans. Referring to blurry surveillance camera images of the mass shooting, Serpas said police have "multiple identifications of Akein Scott as the shooter" seen in the film.

Serpas said officers would be searching all night and into Tuesday for Scott, whom he called "no stranger to the criminal justice system." He urged the teen, who has previous arrests on firearms and drug charges, to give himself up.

"We would like to remind the community and Akein Scott that the time has come for him to turn himself in," Serpas said at a news conference outside police headquarters.

A photo of Scott hung from a podium in front of the police chief. "We know more about you than you think we know," he said.

Serpas said it was too early to say whether he was the only shooter.

The mass shooting showed again how far the city has to go to shake a persistent culture of violence that belies the city's festive image. Earlier, police announced a $10,000 reward and released the surveillance camera images, which led to several tips from the community.

"The people today chose to be on the side of the young innocent children who were shot and not on the side of a coward who shot into the crowd," Serpas said.

The superintendent said SWAT team members and U.S. marshals served a searched warrant at one location looking for Scott, but didn't locate him.

Angry residents said gun violence — which has flared at two other city celebrations this year — goes hand-in-hand with the city's other deeply rooted problems such as poverty and urban blight. The investigators tasked with solving Sunday's shooting work within an agency that's had its own troubles rebounding from years of corruption while trying to halt violent crime.

"The old people are scared to walk the streets. The children can't even play outside," Ronald Lewis, 61, said Monday as he sat on the front stoop of his house, about a half-block from the shooting site. His window sill has a hole from a bullet that hit it last year. Across the street sits a house marked by bullets he said were fired two weeks ago.

"The youngsters are doing all this," said Jones, who was away from home when the latest shooting broke out.

Video released early Monday shows a crowd gathered for a parade suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man in a white T-shirt and dark pants who turns and runs out of the picture. Two children were among those wounded.

Police were working to determine whether there was more than one gunman, though they initially said three people were spotted fleeing from the scene. Whoever was responsible escaped despite the presence of officers who were interspersed through the crowd as part of routine precautions for such an event.

A police news release says Scott has previously been arrested for illegal carrying of a weapon, illegal possession of a stolen firearm, resisting an officer, contraband to jail, illegal carrying of a weapon while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of heroin.

It was not immediately clear whether Scott, who was arrested this past March, had been convicted on any of those charges.

Serpas said ballistic evidence gathered at the scene was giving them "very good leads to work on."

Witness Jarrat Pytell said he was walking with friends near the parade route when the crowd suddenly began to break up.

"I saw the guy on the corner, his arm extended, firing into the crowd," said Pytell, a medical student.

"He was obviously pointing in a specific direction; he wasn't swinging the gun wildly," Pytell said.

Pytell said he tended to one woman with a severe arm fracture — he wasn't sure if it was from a bullet or a fall — and to others including an apparent shooting victim who was bleeding badly.

Three victims still in critical condition
Three gunshot victims remained in critical condition Monday, though their wounds didn't appear to be life-threatening. Most of the wounded had been released from the hospital.

It's not the first time gunfire has shattered a festive mood in the city this year. Five people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting after an argument in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK Day shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.

The shootings are bloody reminders of the persistence of violence in the city, despite some recent progress.

Last week, law enforcement officials touted the indictment of 15 people in gang-related crimes, including the death of a 5-year-old girl killed by stray gunfire at a birthday party a year ago.

The city's 193 homicides in 2012 are seven fewer than the previous year, while the first three months of 2013 represented an even slower pace of killing.

On Monday night, 100 to 150 people gathered for a unity rally and peace vigil in the wake of Sunday's shootings. Some residents stood in their doorways or on their steps. At one point, trumpeter Kenneth Terry played, "O For a Closer Walk With Thee."

Robin Bevins, president of the ladies group of the Original Four Social Aid and Pleasure Club, said she and members of her organization came to the rally to show solidarity.

"This code of silence has to end," said Bevins, who's also a member of the city's Social Aid Task Force. "If we stand up and speak out, maybe this kind of thing will stop."

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu walked into the area, greeting people, shaking hands and stopping to talk with some residents before addressing the crowd.

"We came back out here as a community to stand on what we call sacred ground," Landrieu said. "We came here to reclaim this spot. This shooting doesn't reflect who we are as a community or what we're about."

Leading efforts to lower the homicide rate is a police force that's faced its own internal problems and staffing issues. At about 1,200 members, the department is 300 short of its peak level.

Serpas, who has been chief since 2010, has been working to overcome the effects of decades of scandal and community mistrust arising from what the U.S. Justice Department says has been questionable use of force and biased policing.

The site of the Sunday shooting — about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter — showcases other problems facing the city. Stubborn poverty and blight are evident in the area of middle-class and low-income homes. Like other areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the area has been slower to repopulate than wealthier areas. And Landrieu's stepped-up efforts to demolish or renovate blighted properties — a pre-Katrina problem made worse by the storm — remain too slow for some.

Frank Jones, 71, whose house is a few doors down from the shooting site, said the house across from him has been abandoned since Katrina. Squatters and drug dealers sometimes take shelter there, he said.

A city code inspector, who declined to be interviewed, was there Monday.

"It's too late," Jones said. "Should have fixed it from the very beginning. A lot of people are getting fed up with the system." 

At least 19 people were injured on Sunday when multiple gunmen opened fire on a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans, police said.

A 10-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were grazed by bullets but were in good condition, New Orleans Police spokesman Garry Flot said in a statement. A woman and a man were in surgery Sunday evening, but there were no fatalities and most wounds were not life threatening, police said.

At least three people were spotted running away from the scene after the shooting on North Villere Street in the 7th Ward neighborhood at 1:45 p.m. At least one suspect was described as a man between the ages of 18 and 22.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said there may have been as many as three shooters, and that two different types of weapons were likely used.

The victims were marching in what is known as a second line parade, which are common in New Orleans: A brass band plays while marching in the streets, while a “second line” of people follows the band, celebrating.

Officials said the parade was two blocks long and included about 400 people. The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series "Treme."

“These are unusual circumstances. We have second lines which occur in the city of New Orleans virtually every weekend at this time of the year,” Serpas said.  “We had a full complement of police officers. It appears that these two or three people just for a reason unknown to us, started shooting at towards, or in the crowd. It was over in just a couple seconds.”

Lauren Mcgaughy / The Times-Picayune / Landov

Bystanders comfort a shooting victim after gunfire injured 19 people during a Mother's Day in New Orleans on Sunday.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the shooting was part of "the relentless drum beat of violence" on the streets of New Orleans.

"It’s a shame and its got to stop," he told The Times-Picayune from outside New Orleans' Interim LSU Public Hospital. "You see it cascading across the country but we have more of it than anyone else."

Detectives were conducting interviews and retrieving surveillance video from around the scene.  Landrieu urged anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.

He added: "These kinds of incidents will not go unanswered. Somebody knows something. The way to stop this violence is for you all to help."

Second lines have been targets for violence in New Orleans in recent years. In the past, shooters have targeted a specific person in the crowd, which authorities say may have been the case Sunday as well.  But Landrieu dismissed the notion of outlawing the Louisiana tradition.

“It’s not the second line that did the shooting,” he said. “The cultural events are very important to us, it’s like calling for an end to Mardi Gras because someone takes an opportunity to shoot someone during one of our parades.”  

“Second lines have been with us for a long, long time,” Landrieu added. “They are an important part of our culture and our heritage.”

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, told The Associated Press that federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

"It's strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans," she said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 10:26 AM EDT

Russell family via Reuters

Sgt. John M. Russell last month pleaded guilty to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers.

TACOMA, Washington - A survivor of a shooting spree that killed five U.S. servicemen at a combat stress clinic in Iraq testified on Tuesday that he remembered the gunman, a fellow soldier, chuckling after he shot an unarmed man who had been trying to hide.

U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 shooting the military has said could have been triggered by combat stress.

He is facing a streamlined court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to determine the level of his guilt, a question that will hinge largely on whether the military judge finds he acted with premeditation, as prosecutors say, or on impulse, as the defense argues.

Army Sergeant Dominic Morales, working at the clinic at the time of the attack, recalled that he hid under a desk beside another soldier and heard shots ring out and said he could smell gunpowder.

Morales testified that Russell shot a soldier hiding near a filing shelf one time and chuckled as he moaned "Oh God, oh God..." and then shot him again.

"I heard Sergeant Russell chuckle ... an evil chuckle," Morales said. "To me, a frightening chuckle."

Russell then approached his hiding place and shot the soldier next to him, Specialist Jacob Barton, whose dead body fell onto him.

Seconds later, with Russell out of sight, Morales sprinted out of hiding but the soldier fired at least two bullets at him.

The testimony came on the second day of a court martial that is expected to focus largely on Russell's state of mind at the time of the shooting, which marked one of the worst episodes of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.

Defense attorney James Culp later established through questioning Morales that nightmares jogged his memory of Russell's laugh.

Military prosecutors have focused this week on the more than 40 minutes Russell had to consider his actions as he drove back to the clinic with a stolen SUV and rifle and on his calm, stone-faced demeanor as he carried that rifle in a combat-ready position as he slipped into the clinic through a rear entrance.

Russell, who agreed to plead guilty in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, faces up to life in confinement without the possibility of parole, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge.

Defense lawyers, who had not yet made an opening statement, have said Russell suffered a host of mental ailments after several combat tours and was suicidal before the attack. With his mind damaged and unable to get the help he needed, they say, he cracked.

An independent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff of the University of Pennsylvania, concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings.

Sadoff suggested Russell, who was attached to the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, was provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of mental health personnel at Camp Liberty.

The presiding judge, Army Colonel David Conn, ruled on Monday that when Sadoff testifies he can draw upon another doctor's findings that the soldier had "brain abnormalities" in areas that govern behavior and emotion. Sadoff used that analysis in his own broader psychiatric evaluation.

Prosecutors also asked Staff Sergeant Derrick Flowers, who jumped out of a window to escape the attack, whether Russell's gunshots were "erratic or controlled."

"It was controlled, sir," Flowers said. 

Related:

• Ten years after Iraq invasion, US troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'
• Army deserter who fled to Canada sentenced to 10 months in prison
• Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions?

NBC 6 South Florida

A 6-year-old girl was shot by her 13-year-old brother in Oakland Park according to investigators.

A six-year-old Florida girl was in critical condition Sunday after being shot by her 13-year-old brother Saturday night in a city just north of Fort Lauderdale.

Neighbors said the two children were playing a game when the shooting occurred shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday in Oakland Park, a city in Broward Country.

"They were playing hide and go seek. I don't know how it went down but he shot his sister," said neighbor Peter Milano, who saw a frantic woman he thought was the children's aunt running down the block.

"She came up to me 'Is she ok? Is she ok?' At the time I didn't know what she was talking about," Milano said.

It's not clear if authorities will pursue criminal charges in the case. Detectives believe the shooting was accidental but were still trying to determine exactly how the teen got access to the gun. The children were home alone at the time of the incident, said Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Homicide detectives spent time talking with the 13-year-old. Neighbors said he drew pictures for investigators as he described what happened.

"The kid's probably, well, how could you feel, you just shot your sister?" Milano said.

Though detectives are specially trained to deal with the most sensitive situations, Moschella said the fact that two children are involved made this job that much more difficult.

"It is very difficult when dealing with children, specifically children who've been through a very traumatic situation," she said. "This family will never be the same after tonight, no matter how it ends up."

The 6-year-old is in critical condition at Broward Health Medical Center.

A 5-year-old Kentucky boy who received a .22-caliber rifle as a gift accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister on Tuesday, according to state police.

The toddler was shot at just after 1 p.m. local time on Lawson’s Bottom Road in Cumberland County, police said. The girl was taken to Cumberland County Hospital and later pronounced dead.

The mother of the two children was at home at the time of the shooting, Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the local newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader. He said that the family did not realize that there was a shell inside the gun. The firearm was kept in a corner, he said.

“It’s a Crickett,” Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the paper. “It’s a little rifle for a kid.”

“The little boy’s used to shooting the little gun,” White said.

The shooting occurred while the boy was playing with the rifle, police said. It was “just one of those crazy accidents,” White told the Herald-Leader.

Related:

• Gun vote stirs passion at Ayotte town hall meetings
• Pro-gun billboard featuring Native Americans causing controversy in Colorado
• NRA threatens to punish lawmakers on gun control vote despite deal