The Rishon Letzion court on Sunday morning extended the detention of five people who are suspected of involvement in the murder of police volunteer Amichai Carmely and the injury of two other people.
The detention of the driver of the speeding vehicle was extended by four days and that of the four occupants of the vehicle by two days.
During the hearing, investigators submitted documents indicating that the five were under the influence of alcohol, and were called upon to pull over by police after driving erratically.
Amichai Carmely, 46, was killed early Saturday morning when a resident of the southern Arab city of Rahat rammed into him at a Rishon Lezion sobriety checkpoint.
Carmely was a veteran volunteer in Israel Police's Traffic Department, and had been serving in the department for over 15 years. He was killed when a vehicle escaping the police broke through the checkpoint near the Beit Dagan Junction, ramming forcefully into him.
Last night, it was decided that the running over of Carmely would be investigated as a criminal incident of murder.
Carmely is survived by his widow, Keren, his father Yitzhak, and his two children, daughter Yuval (19) and son Sagi (16).
Sagi said, "How can we write or speak about you in the past tense? Just yesterday you were with me, with Mom, Yuval, and our Joy. I don't know what to say or do or how to act, but I will still try, because you always said that if I don't try I won't know. You always supported us and showed us the good. I am sitting in your old room and I don't know what to do. People are coming to try to comfort us but I am just waiting for the omelet, salad, and jokes that you would make every Saturday morning."
Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said, "Israel Police's extensive network of volunteers is active on the front lines of the battle against crime and traffic accidents, ensuring law and order, and all other police tasks. Today, we have lost one of our best volunteers."
Shabtai added that Carmely's grandfather, Superintendent Moshe Carmely, fell in 1973 just before the Yom Kippur War, when a grenade was hurled at him on Gaza's main street.
"Amichai and his grandfather Moshe are heroes who fell while protecting their land and the citizens of the State of Israel during operational activities - one as a police chief, and the other as a police volunteer," Shabtai said. "At this difficult hour, we are with the Carmely family, supporting, helping, and accompanying them, now and forever."