Honeymooning groom arrested at airport for gunfire at his wedding
Resident of Tamra suspected of providing friend with pistol to fire celebratory shots during ceremony; officers detain him at Ben Gurion in front of his wife
A groom was arrested in front of his wife at the airport, as the newlyweds were on their way to their honeymoon, on suspicion that he supplied an unlicensed gun that was used to fire shots in the air at his wedding, police said Wednesday.
The man, 29 a resident of the Arab Israeli city of Tamra, was stopped at Ben Gurion Airport and taken in for questioning.
Police suspect he gave a friend of his a pistol that was used to shoot in the air at the wedding on Monday.
During the wedding, police received reports of gunshots and launched an investigation.
The probe recovered CCTV footage of the shooting, and two other suspects were arrested, the Ynet news site reported. The gun has not yet been found.
Superintendent Haled Shenan, from the Tamra police station, told Ynet that police found out the groom was planning to leave the country, so they issued an order blocking his exit.
“In the end, police arrested him right at the airport in front of his wife,” Shenan said.
The officer stressed that “every incident like this might cause stray shots and injury to innocent people.”
A remand hearing was scheduled at Haifa Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
“We take a serious view of instances of ‘celebratory’ firing at weddings and carry out advocacy and prevention activities in Arab society to eradicate the trend, along with local leaders,” police said in a statement. “This activity has significantly reduced the trend, which has previously caused injuries and even death.”
Some 400,000 illegal weapons are circulating in Israel, according to a 2020 Knesset report, the vast majority of them in Arab communities, which have seen a surge in violence in recent years, driven mainly by organized crime.
In April, Channel 12 news reported that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett wanted police to conduct a wide-scale operation and confiscate illegal weapons in the Arab community in the wake of a series of deadly terror attacks. He found, however, that police were incapable of launching such an operation, because they are already working at full capacity, the report said.
The Times of Israel Community.