Beit Shemesh man murdered for $35

Two suspects were indicted Tuesday in the brutal murder of 21-year-old Tazera Takao on May 22.

According to police, the two suspects met Takao in an abandoned park near his Beit Shemesh home at 9 p.m. that Friday evening. They demanded he hand over any money he had on his person.

When Takao refused, one of the suspects picked up a rock and began beating him. The second suspect joined in until they had beaten him to death. They then inspected his pockets and took the 130 shekels ($35) they found there.

According to one police investigator quoted by Channel 2 television news, the suspects used the cash from the “cruel and especially brutal murder” to buy drugs.

Tazera “was 21,” his brother Nage said. “We can’t internalize this. Someone just murders a person.”

Rumors soon spread in the neighborhood as to the identity of the attackers. Days after the murder, one of the attackers was kidnapped by friends of Tazera, who took him to a nearby forest, bound him to a tree and interrogated him for information about the attack.

The kidnappers soon left the scene, leaving the suspected murderer tied to the tree. The latter soon freed himself and managed to stagger to a nearby road, where he was spotted by police and arrested.

Police have arrested the suspected kidnappers as well.