A policeman was shot and suffered medium wounds early Sunday afternoon after he approached a suspicious-looking man who was walking down a street in Maalot-Tarshicha, in the Galilee. The policeman accosted the man and asked him to identify himself, and the man responded by pulling out a gun and shooting the policeman in the lower part of his body.
The shooter escaped to a nearby forest. The wounded policeman’s partner gave chase but then returned to tend to his partner’s wound and call in emergency services. Dozens of policemen are searching for the shooter, based on his description, and roadblocks have been put up in the Maalot area. One report said that his identity is known.
The wounded policeman is in moderate but stable condition at Nahariya Hospital.
Avigail Serara, Director of the Organization of Policemen’s Wives, said that “the blood of policemen in this country has become cheap. The government and the other authorities must wake up and act to protect policemen’s lives through legislation and by putting policemen’s security at the top of their priorities.”
Some reports on the incident questioned why the policeman’s partner did not shoot at the shooter.
Detective convicted of manslaughter
Earlier in the day, Haifa District Court Judge Dr. Menachem Finkelstein convicted Shachar Mizrachi, a detective in the Hadera police station, of manslaughter in the death of a suspected Arab car thief, Mahmoud Ganaeem, in 2006.
The incident occurred in Pardes Hana, during a police stakeout of car thieves following a wave of thefts. Mizrachi and several other detectives spotted Ganaeem and an accomplice trying to break into a car. According to police, one of the detectives approached the two suspects and identified himself as a policeman. Ganaeem ignored him, began cursing him in Arabic, threatened to kill him, got into his own car together with his accomplice and turned on the ignition.
At that point, police said, detective Mizrachi pulled out his gun and instructed the two to get out of the car. However, the Arabs started driving in Mizrachi’s direction. Mizrachi shot the driver in the head and killed him.
Judge: he could have shot tires
The accomplice later admitted that the two had been stealing cars. The prosecution admits that Ganaeem had burglary equipment in his possession and that he had tried to break into a car.
Judge Finkelstein said he does not accept Mizrachi’s defense plea that he acted in self-defense. He said that Mizrachi’s life was not in danger and that the main motive for shooting Ganaeem was to prevent his escape. This, he determined, could have been achieved by shooting the tires of his car. “There was no justification for shooting at the deceased’s head from short range,” he wrote.
The judge also noted that Mizrachi’s version of what happened changed over time. At first he claimed that he had shot Ganaeem by accident and only later did he admit to shooting him intentionally.
