Elite cop ‘praying for friend’ after friendly-fire incident

An officer from the elite Special Patrol Unit of the Jerusalem Police remained in critical condition early Sunday at the capital’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center after being shot by a close friend and fellow cop as the two raced to stop a Palestinian terror attack.

In the incident, a Border Police officer was moderately wounded when he was stabbed by a Palestinian youth on Saturday afternoon near the Old City’s Damascus Gate. According to a police recounting of the incident, the officer and a fellow cop had approached the youth, who was said to be behaving in a suspicious manner. They asked to see his identification. After handing over his ID card, the 19-year-old pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the officers in the neck.

A nearby group of special patrol (known by the Hebrew acronym Yasam) officers saw the attack unfold and opened fire, killing the attacker but also accidentally hitting the other Border Police officer and the critically wounded Yasam officer in the process, according to the police statement.

The Yasam officer remains in life-threatening condition, hospital officials said. Family members and friends are at his bedside, while other fellow officers are said to be comforting the officer who shot him. The two are said to be best friends, and officials say the shooting officer is experiencing mental anguish over the accident.

He is “praying for his friend’s recovery,” Channel 10 reports.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Saturday night lauded the cops’ efforts.

“The people of Israel prays for the wellbeing of these heroic officers,” he said on a visit to the wounded policemen at Shaare Zedek. The officers “disrupted a threat, and maybe prevented a very great disaster that might have occurred in the Old City. I think all the people of Israel, beyond praying for their wellbeing, are also aware of what the officers are doing 24 hours a day.”

He praised the families of the wounded, “who pay a heavy price today, but do so in the name of this calling, shared by all the cops of the Israel Police. The people of Israel salute them today.”

The Palestinian stabber was named as Muhammad Ali, 19, from Shuafat in East Jerusalem.

This was the second stabbing attack in the city on Saturday. Earlier in the day, a Palestinian teenager stabbed two ultra-Orthodox men in central Jerusalem. One of the victims was moderately injured while the other sustained light wounds. They were evacuated to Shaare Zedek.

The two men, aged 62 and 65, were on their way back from morning prayers at a local synagogue when they were attacked.

Their Palestinian attacker, a 16-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead by security forces.