JERUSALEM (JTA) — The off-duty Israeli police officer who fatally shot an Ethiopian-Israeli teenager in a park was officially charged with negligent homicide.
State prosecutors filed the indictment with the Haifa Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
The killing of Solomon Tekah, 19, on June 30 in a Haifa-area park sparked nationwide demonstrations, some violent, by the Ethiopian-Israeli community protesting police discrimination, as well as national racism.
An investigation found that the officer fired at the ground and the bullet ricocheted into Tekah’s body.
The officer said that he shot after feeling threatened while attempting to break up a street fight in the suburb of Kiryat Haim, in northern Israel. The teens involved in the altercation threw stones at the officer and injured him before he used his gun, according to the Justice Ministry.
The name of the officer, whose family was with him at the park when the shooting took place, remains under a gag order.
The indictment states that the officer fired “in contravention of mandatory police orders and police procedures, which do not permit firing at the ground, in the circumstances and manner in which the defendant acted,” the Kan public broadcaster reported.
It adds that “the decision took into account the fact that the defendant was at the scene with his family, was attacked with stones by the deceased and other boys and even was injured in the incident, before using his gun.”
Tekah’s family has called for manslaughter charges to be brought against the officer.
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