Top cop denies hiding info on sighting of terrorist

Police Commissioner Ronnie Alsheich says police are investigating claims of a failed follow-up on a reported sighting of the terrorist Nashat Milhem in the aftermath of his New Year’s Day deadly shooting spree Tel Aviv.

“The main thing that we have to consider is whether what has been done disrupted or did not disrupt operational activities,” he says.

“There is hardly an event that has no lessons. For those who ask why we hid the claims until now, [I answer that] we did not hide them. We are in the middle of the investigation and are not publishing information at this time.”

During the afternoon of Friday, January 1, Milhem opened fire at the Simta bar in central Tel Aviv, killing Alon Bakal and Shimon Ruimi. He then commandeered a taxi and killed driver Amin Shaaban, who he feared would turn him in, before abandoning the vehicle apparently because he couldn’t operate it.

Shortly after that, two young women — sisters Noa, 20, and Ofir, 25 – saw Milhem in a bloodstained sweatshirt board a bus in northern Tel Aviv. They attempted to alert police but were ignored despite the massive manhunt launched by security forces after the attack, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.

The two notified their boss, who called the police hotline repeatedly, but said that law enforcement officials never followed up on the calls. They made several calls on Friday, Sunday and Monday.

Alsheich has ordered an internal investigation of police’s handling of attack and the ensuing nationwide manhunt for Milhem, who was finally tracked down a full week after the killings, on January 8, and was shot dead when he fired on security forces who had come to arrest him.