Suspect identified in Taibe school shooting

A suspect has been named in the August slaying of a school principal in central Israel, police said Sunday.

The investigation of the killing, which took place during a staff meeting at the Amal school in the city of Taibe, concluded after authorities identified the school’s cafeteria director as the main suspect.

Police contend that Wael Qa’ik, 46, killed Yussuf Haj Yahya because the 50-year-old principal had planned to open other cafeterias in the school, a decision that would have hurt Qa’ik’s operating income.

Although it took authorities two months to publicly name Qa’ik as a suspect, police had traced the getaway car, a Subaru truck, near the home of the suspect. Further testing had uncovered gunpowder residue inside the car.

Central District police arrested Qa’ik shortly after the August 25 shooting and have been questioning him ever since.

Investigators reviewing surveillance tapes from the crime scene also indicated that the man who killed Haj Yahya — who had been wearing a hat, coat, gloves, and glasses and was brandishing an umbrella — shared indistinguishable attributes with Qa’ik.

Qa’ik has proclaimed his innocence throughout the investigation, as police have still not have been able to produce DNA or fingerprint evidence inextricably linking the cafeteria director to the killing.

Qa’ik has been charged with murder, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The slaying had shocked residents in the region, known colloquially as the “Triangle,” as Haj Yahya was a well-respected educator who had been considering running for mayor of the Arab-Israeli city.