Police minister backs man who killed suspected carjacker

Public Security Minister Amir Ohana is lining up in support of a man who shot a  suspected carjacker to death in Arad over the weekend.

“Aryeh Schiff is a model citizen,” Ohana writes on Facebook, citing a law which forbids prosecution of individuals who act “as necessary” to protect themselves or their property.

Schiff was arrested last week on suspicion of reckless manslaughter, after an autopsy found that the suspected thief, 36, had been shot in the head. A court has ordered him freed to house arrest as the case proceeds, but police have appealed. Despite the court rejecting the appeal earlier in the day, Schiff, 70, is still slated to remain behind bars for the next two days.

Ohana describes the suspected car thief, who has not been named in reports, as a Bedouin man with a criminal history, and says that the state should back those trying to protect themselves, saying self-defending citizens are an alternative to police, who cannot be everywhere at once.

“There are times in life when the truth is simple. When it’s evil versus good, I’m with the good,” he writes.