Officers not questioned after paralyzing psychotic man

An investigation into police officers who shot a mentally unstable 18-year-old, leaving him permanently paralyzed, was closed without the officers being questioned, Army Radio reported Thursday.

The incident occurred last June, when an involuntary commitment order was issued for the man, who was suffering a psychotic attack and threatened a passerby outside his home with a knife. The passerby then called police.

When two police officers arrived, the mentally impaired man locked himself in his room, while his parents were in the house. After police burst into the room, the man began hurling items at them and acted chaotically while holding the knife.

In order to neutralize the man, police first fired a warning shot inside the house, and then went on to shoot him in the leg. As a result, he was permanently paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

It was not made immediately clear why the police officers didn’t use nonlethal means of neutralization, such as a Taser or mace, or why they did not wait for a medical team to arrive before entering his room.

The police internal investigations unit initially closed the case without taking testimony from the complainant or the officers, but following the insistence of the victim and his family, allowed them to submit a deposition. The case was then closed once again, still without the officers being questioned.

The only charges pressed in the case were against the victim, for assaulting police officers. His case is ongoing, though a psychiatric evaluation made clear he is unfit to stand trial.

PID claimed that after reviewing the evidence and circumstances, it was decided the police acted in accordance with the law and there were no grounds for a criminal investigation to be opened.

“An investigation conducted immediately after the event made clear that the complainant threatened the officers with a knife and disregarded their warnings,” a PID official told Army Radio. “Given the circumstances, there was no option other than a nonlethal shot towards the complainant’s leg.”

Police refrained from commenting as the case was being handled by PID.

The victim’s lawyer, Shlomtzion Gabai-Mendelman, accused the officers of serious misconduct. “They arrived with guns and no other means of deterrence – not a taser, not mace. They arrived with guns, fully aware of a mentally ill man with a knife.”

She claimed one of the police officers entered without permission from the parents, despite there not being any signs of immediate danger to others.

“I think it’s an outrage that PID did not open an investigation,” she said, adding that it is “a badge of shame that they dare press charges [against the man] for assaulting the officers, after they entered his room and shot him.”

The case joins PID data for the past year, which shows that out of 1,500 criminal inquiries opened, only 730 police officers were investigated. Of the investigations, only 116 criminal charges were pressed.