Taxi driver shot after trying to run over Jerusalem policeman

A taxi driver in East Jerusalem was shot after he allegedly attempted to run over a border policeman on Sunday morning.

The driver, a 39-year-old resident of Jabel Mukaber, drove into the police station compound in his neighborhood where, police say, he deliberately attempted to run down an officer, injuring him in the leg. Three policemen who were at the scene fired their weapons at the driver, hitting him in the leg as well and ending the incident.

Both men were slightly injured. The driver was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, while the injured border policeman was treated on the scene by paramedics. Police closed the area around the station and opened an investigation into the incident.

In his interrogation after the event, the driver said: “I lost it, I wanted to die, I wanted to hit the station.”

The police said that the man had acted alone and did not carry out the attack on behalf of a terror organization.

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In recent years, Israel — and especially Jerusalem — has seen a spate of vehicular assaults carried out by Arab attackers.

In July 2008, three people were killed and at least 30 were wounded in the so-called Jerusalem bulldozer attack, during which Hussam Duwiyat, also a resident of Jabel Mukaber, went on a rampage with a front-end loader in the center of the capital.