The Department of Internal Police Investigations have questioned the Border Police officer who shot and killed an Arab man after a car chase Thursday in Umm al-Fahm.
Following the interrogation, the officer is released to house arrest for five days and ordered to stay away from police stations for two weeks as well as the northern Arab town for 30 days.
Police said Thursday morning that officers pursued a “suspicious vehicle” on Route 65 after the driver failed to comply with their orders to stop.
The chase ended in Umm al-Fahm. According to police, after the cars came to a halt and an officer approached on foot, the driver pounced on the cop, who opened fire.
The driver, identified as 38-year-old Alaa Mahameed, was later pronounced dead. The Umm al-Fahm municipality condemned the deadly incident and called for an independent commission to investigate it.
The shooting and alleged assault were caught on a security camera, with sources described as close to the officer quoted by Haaretz as saying the incident was also recorded on his body camera.
The newspaper also reports the DIPI investigation has found Mahameed was unarmed when he was killed.
Yousef Jabareen, head of the Arab-majority Joint List party, says during a condolence visit to the family that the security camera footage “contradicts the police account,” and that the family has heard from eyewitnesses that “Alaa did not pose a threat to the officers and he could have been stopped without being shot.”
Blaming the killing on anti-Arab incitement by the government, Jabareen says the officer should be “suspended immediately” and called for an “independent, transparent and genuine probe.”
The officer’s attorney, Moti Azulay, meanwhile tells Haaretz “the entire incident lasted a few seconds” and that the officer “sensed a genuine, immediate threat to his life.”
The officer, who “regrets the difficult way in which the incident ended,” acted out of self defense and had “no other practical option,” the lawyer says.
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
