Tel Aviv Police have made a significant advancement in their investigation of
the August 2009 shooting at the Bar Noar gay youth center that left two dead and
15 wounded, but said Monday that the development is not necessarily a
breakthrough.
Though the specific details of the development are banned
from publication by a gag order, Tel Aviv Police Chief Aharon Aksol said cops
are hopeful it could help them crack the case that has been a top investigative
target of the Tel Aviv district for the past three years.
At around 11
p.m. on August 1, 2009, a masked gunman entered the youth center’s building on
Nachmani Street and opened fire with a pistol on teenagers holding a social
event in the basement. The shooting took the lives of Nir Katz, 26, a volunteer
and counselor at the center, and Liz Trobishi, 16. An additional 15 people, most
of them minors, were injured in the shooting.
The shooting has remained a
major focus of police investigative efforts since it took place, and every few
months reports of a breakthrough have surfaced and disappeared with no
arrests.
In the days after the shooting, support for the gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender community in Israel was expressed by politicians from
across the political spectrum, and protests and vigils were held to mark the
most violent attack ever in the country on the the LGBT community.
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