Police testimony said to back up claim driver was shot before hitting cop

Police testimony collected as part of a probe into the deadly shooting of a Bedouin man as his car struck and killed a policeman suggests that shots were fired both before and after the car hit the officer, contributing to claims that the incident may not have been a terror attack as previously charged by authorities.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) and Israel Police Chief Roni Alsheich initially asserted that Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an was a nationalistically motivated terrorist, and said he was inspired by the Islamic State group.

They said he was shot after accelerating the vehicle with its lights off in the direction of the officers.

A Justice Ministry investigation, however, has reportedly found that the January incident in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran was not terrorism. Erdan has backtracked in the last two days. Aba Al-Qia’an’s family have asked that he apologize.

Testimony collected from a number of officers at the scene suggests they may have shot Abu al-Qia’an before it was clear if he was trying to hit the police, Channel 10 news reported Wednesday.

“I stood next to the path, close to the car as it continued to drive. I shouted at him to ‘stop’ but he kept driving. I fired three shots at his forward-righthand tire and I heard the tire pop but the car didn’t stop. I moved aside and this time shot at the back-righthand tire,” an unnamed officer is said to have disclosed.

Another unnamed officer told investigators that “I shot towards the front and backhand tires and I heard a tire pop.”

Fearing hitting his colleagues, this officer then ran after the car as it continued.

“Only after I saw that the car hit a police officer did I manage to look through my sights and shoot in order to stop him,” he said.

Other officers testified that they signaled and shouted to Abu Al-Qia’an as he appeared to drive towards them.

“I stood on the path opposite the car, a few meters from it. I approached him but he ignored me, turned on the lights and began to drive in my direction. I moved aside and I shouted at him to stop, I smacked the car with my gun as he was driving past me but he kept driving,” a policeman reportedly told investigators.

Another officer said he had to jump out of the way to avoid being run over.

The incident took place in the early morning of January 18, when police arrived to demolish houses in the unrecognized village, which the state was seeking to remove in order to clear the way for a new Jewish town.

As officers converged on Umm al-Hiran, Abu Al-Qia’an, 47, a teacher and father of 12, packed a few belongings into his SUV and drove from his house, telling friends that he did not wish to witness its destruction. Soon afterward, the vehicle rammed into a group of officers, killing 1st Sgt. Erez Levi, 34. Abu Al-Qia’an was fatally shot by police.

The incident was immediately called a terror attack by law enforcement officials.

Video footage that emerged in the hours after the incident showed the officers fired before Abu Al-Qia’an accelerated, and that, contrary to police assertions, the car’s lights were on. In addition, Channel 10 reported last month that a police autopsy indicated that a police bullet hit him in the right knee, smashing it. The bullet wound may have caused Abu Al-Qia’an to lose control of his car, the TV report said.

The police testimony reported Wednesday could back up this claim.

Judicial sources were quoted by Haaretz Tuesday as saying the findings would “not be good for police.” According to this report, Abu Al-Qia’an’s speed at no point exceeded 20 kilometers per hour. It quoted professional estimates as saying such a speed does not indicate an attempt to carry out a ramming attack.

 

According to reports Tuesday in Hebrew-language media, the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department found no evidence to support the claim that the incident in Umm al-Hiran was a terror attack, and also determined that police officers did not act according to protocol. One report on the right-wing Channel 20 said that officers shot at one another and almost caused a friendly fire accident.

Police said the Internal Investigations Department had yet to complete its investigation. “The information given to the public includes disinformation and many inaccuracies, something that has happened, unfortunately, many times since the incident,” police said in a statement. “We recommend waiting for the release of the official investigation’s findings and not to be moved by these statements or any others.”

A police spokesperson could not confirm when the investigation would end.

On Tuesday, Erdan appeared to walk back his previous claim that the “unequivocal conclusion” was that the incident was an act of terror, saying “we had a rough and regrettable incident a few weeks ago at Umm al-Hiran,” while adding that “we must not let anyone try to take a local event, during which, sadly, both a police officer and a citizen were killed, and project from it on the relations between the Bedouin population and the Israel Police.”

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.