Jerusalem police chief: Terrorist ‘would have killed lots of people’

Jerusalem’s police chief Yoram Halevy, asked on Channel 2 news whether the attack should have been prevented, says that the police are monitoring “many potential attackers” and that the terrorist was “one of those who certainly had the potential” to carry out an attack. He refuses to elaborate.

Halevy says that the reinforced police presence in the capital prevented an even graver attack. The killer, who reportedly used an Israeli army-issue M-16 machine-gun, had “lots and lots of ammunition,” says Halevy, and was headed to the center of town, where “he would have killed lots of people.”

The Israeli assessment of the danger the killer posed, Channel 2’s Ehud Ya’ari earlier, was simply incorrect. He had been barred from the Temple Mount. He had been regarded as a troublemaker, a provocateur and an inciter, said Ya’ari. But it was not realized that he was “about to make the transition from using his fists to using a machine-gun.”