Bay Area Police Hid Past Of FBI Agent Who Killed Boston Bomber Associate: Report

OAKLAND, CA — A former Oakland police officer turned FBI agent gained national attention after he fatally shot an associate of the Boston Marathon bomber during a 2013 interrogation.

Newly released Oakland Police Department records suggest Aaron McFarlane may never have joined the FBI if not for misconduct allegations the department concealed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

A decade before McFarlane killed Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he became involved in an infamous scandal involving the "Riders," a police squad known for beatings and framings.

McFarlane was never charged in the Riders case. But newly reviewed documents show he fabricated a jaywalking violation to detain a drug suspect, a move the department deemed serious enough to warrant his firing. Instead, McFarlane retired at 31 years old.

What's more, he was awarded a lifetime disability pension for an injury he sustained on the force. The city also said it would try to keep allegations of misconduct a secret from future employers.

When McFarline was hired by the FIB in 2008, it was unclear how much the agency knew about his past.

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle: An FBI agent killed a man after the Boston Marathon bombing. Oakland PD had helped hide his past