Policeman charged with reckless homicide after said to accidentally kill friend

Prosecutors charge a Border Police officer with reckless homicide after he is said to have accidentally shot and killed his friend on the doorstep to his home in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.

According to the indictment, the defendant’s friend, 20-year-old soldier Yosef Haim Rabuah, arrived at his house and knocked on his door earlier this month, on the first night of the festival of Sukkot. The defendant allegedly opened the door with his gun cocked and aimed at the deceased’s upper body, and then pulled the trigger by mistake.

The unnamed officer has a history of behaving violently and carelessly with firearms, according to the Department for Internal Police Investigations.

Many times, he had shot his gun in open areas, played with weapons at his base and even possessed a firearm without a proper permit before the fatal accident — all of which reflect a “consistent pattern of improper use of firearms and aggressive behavior,” prosecutors write.

Rabuah’s fiance, who witnessed the shooting, testified that the unnamed officer often toyed with his gun and more than once fired it while in their presence.

The officer is also accused of needlessly beating a detainee in a police jeep while the detainee’s hands were clasped behind his head.

He is indicted in the Jerusalem District Court on several counts of aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and reckless and negligent acts, in addition to the charge of reckless homicide. Prosecutors are requesting that he remain in detention until the end of legal proceedings.