'I was like a predator,' recalls security guard who tracked, shot Tel Aviv gunman

Guard says he ‘didn’t fire until I saw the terrorist with my own eyes,’ and had a clear shot

A security guard working for a private company who shot and wounded one of the two Palestinian terrorists who carried out the shooting attack in Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market on Wednesday night recalled the moments he realized he was witnessing a terror attack.

The guard, identified by his first initial A., followed one of the fleeing terrorists near Ha’arba’ah Street behind the Sarona but couldn’t fire as his gun was jammed, he told Israeli media.

“I was like a predator, resolute,” he said.

“As I withdrew my gun, cocked it, I knew there was a terrorist in this area […] I got in [the area of the shooting], scanned around, saw no one. Then I heard a hail of bullets, I didn’t fire until I saw the terrorist with my own eyes, didn’t shoot, wouldn’t shoot anyone, not even him so long as there were people around him. It was very hard to see [in the ruckus that ensued],” he said.

Khalid Muhamra (left) and Muhammad Muhamra (right) were identified as the two Palestinian cousins from the West Bank village of Yatta who carried out the attack at the Sarona Market in central Tel Aviv in which four people were killed.

The two terrorists were named in Palestinian media reports as cousins Muhammad and Khalid Muhamra from the West Bank town of Yatta, south of Hebron.

A video shot on the cellphone of a passerby shows the moment of the shooting of one of them. It is still not clear which.

“Only when I identified someone running away with a gun, I understood it was him. And it was no ordinary weapon, it was an automatic [firearm],” he said.

When A. started chasing he managed to shorten the distance from the terrorist, and then was stuck: “I wanted to shoot and then my gun jammed. I threw away my cartridge and took another one, cocked the gun and continued to run. Meanwhile, he managed to put some distance between us.”

“I guess he got tired, in the dark I could hear something drop, maybe his gun, I continued to run after him,” A. said.

He then fired a bullet and wounded the terrorist in the abdomen, who is being treated at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

The second attacker was mistakenly offered shelter following the spree by an off-duty policeman rushing to the scene to help, before realizing who he was, turning back and arresting him.

He was taken for interrogation.