At least two of the suspects in a police investigation into a shooting and mob beating of an Eritrean national — mistakenly identified as a terrorist during a Beersheba attack on Sunday — were members of the security forces, Channel 2 reports.
According to the report, Haftom Zarhum, 28, was shot first by a Border Police officer and then by a security guard at the bus station, and was then beaten by a group of people who stood around his body, in footage caught on video.
During the beating, other people tried to protect him before he was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has asked the police head of investigations to keep him updated on the progress of the probe, the channel reports.
A doctor at Soroka Hospital, where he was taken, indicated the beating after the shooting likely contributed to him not surviving.
A worker in a shwarma shop in Beersheba’s main bus station who admitted his part in helping to beat an Eritrean man mistakenly thought to be a terrorist, on October 19, 2015. (screen capture: Channel 2)
The channel interviewed a worker at a shwarma shop in the bus station, who admitted to throwing a row of benches at Zarhum, and expressed some remorse over the incident.
“Unfortunately, he wasn’t the attacker,” the man says.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 19, 2015
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
