Cop who killed Bnei Brak terrorist mourns slain partner: ‘You were my flak jacket’
Officer, who has only been identified by his first initial ‘A,’ vows his kids ‘will grow up and remember’ Amir Khoury after the policeman was fatally wounded in encounter
The police officer who killed the gunman who carried out the deadly Bnei Brak terror attack on Friday eulogized his partner, who was shot and killed in the shooting, as his “flak jacket.”
In a Facebook post, the officer, who has been identified only as Sgt. 1st Class “A,” said it was “hard and difficult” to write about Amir Khoury, who along with two Israelis and two Ukrainian nationals were killed in Tuesday’s attack.
“Even as I write the tears don’t stop. Every picture I look for of you, you’re always smiling. I never heard you, or remember you, say the word ‘no,'” the officer wrote, addressing Khoury. “I taught you in the police and knew immediately what a cadet fell into my hands… So I got you and had the pleasure of being with you until the end.”
Khoury drove the motorcycle the two rode to the scene of the attack and was fatally wounded in the shootout with the Palestinian assailant. Police have released video from the officer’s body camera of the encounter, in which he could be warning Khoury to “watch out” moments before he was apparently fatally wounded.
The officer recounted when they got the call about the shooting spree in Bnei Brak, one of several attacks over the past two weeks in which 11 Israelis have been killed.
“A real incident with a terrorist, which you understand that you need to reach as quickly as possible to save lives, because if we don’t get there then people will be murdered,” he said, according to a screenshot of the post published by Channel 12 news. “And you, without speaking, quickly went straight [there]… because that’s you, you see a terrorist before you and charge like a lion.”
“My children will grow up and remember your name because you were my flak jacked, dear brother. It’s really, really hard to write but I know you would want us to carry on.”
Also Friday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he spoke with “A,” who he hailed along with Khoury for their “initiative and bravery.”
“Amir absorbed the bullet, ‘A’ shot the terrorist, and the two of them saved many lives,” he said.
Khoury, a Christian Arab, is survived by his parents and two sisters, and was engaged to be married. He was buried Thursday in his hometown of Nof Hagalil, formerly known as Upper Nazareth.
