Paramedic says Bnei Brak terrorist tried to shoot him at close range, but was unable to fire gun

Menahem Englander, a Bnei Brak resident and paramedic, tells Channel 12 that he came face-to-face with the terrorist, who pulled the trigger of his gun several times but it didn’t fire.

Englander says he heard sounds of gunfire from his home, where he was with his wife and children, and started to get reports on his Magen David Adom communications network about civilians being fired at.

He told MDA he was nearby and went down to the street.

“A neighbor called out, ‘Menahem, watch out!’

“I took a few steps back,” he recalls, but didn’t see anything untoward.

“Then, two seconds later, the terrorist was standing in front of me, three to four meters away… He aimed his gun at me, and pulled several times [on the trigger], simply trying to shoot. The Almighty protected me. I have no other explanation. I don’t know if the gun jammed or was out of bullets…”

“It all happened in seconds. I turned back, ran into the staircase [of my building], went up to my home and locked the door… fearing that he was chasing after me.”

Watching security camera footage of the attack this morning, he says that he now knows the terrorist, rather than following him, headed off down the street and continued the deadly attack elsewhere.

When he could see from his window that it was safe, he says he went back outside to offer assistance to the injured.

“I can’t get the moment [when he came faced the terrorist] out of my head… I hardly slept all night. I’m slowly taking in what happened,” says Englander. “If it wasn’t for the Almighty, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”