JERUSALEM (JTA) — A video taken after a Palestinian man was subdued and prone on the ground following his stabbing spree in the Tel Aviv area appears to show a volunteer policeman shooting him after he was no longer a threat.
Israel Police reportedly have opened an investigation into the death of Bashar Massalha, 22, who stabbed a dozen people at and near the Jaffa Port, killing an American graduate student.
In the video, the volunteer policeman and a police officer are seen with their guns drawn on the assailant, while people milling about can be heard encouraging them to shoot him in the head. A shot is heard that appears to come from the volunteer’s gun. The policeman yells at the volunteer, asking him why he is shooting for no reason.
The video, which is posted on YouTube, has been sent for examination to the Israel Police Internal Investigations Department and the Justice Ministry, according to reports. Police officers and bystanders will be called in to offer their testimony.
The American who was killed — Taylor Force, a student at the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management — was on a school trip to Israel. His wife was among as many as 10 people wounded in the attack.
The stabbing spree came less than two hours after terror attacks in Jerusalem and central Israel left a haredi Orthodox man and two Israeli Border Police officers seriously injured.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
