One afternoon last August, Gabi Korsanosky, 31, walked up to a bank in Be’er
Ya’acov and put three bullets into the security guard, before cooly walking over
the guard’s body and robbing the bank at gunpoint, according to an indictment
issued by the Central District prosecutor’s office on Monday morning.
The
indictment, which came after police worked for over 50 days to build the case
against Korsanosky, lays out the modus operandi by which police believe the
Rishon Lezion native known as “Motorcycle Bandit 2” robbed 14 banks in central
Israel over the past year and a half.
According to the indictment, on 14
different occasions Korsanosky walked into banks in central Israel with a gun in
his hand and his face covered. Upon entering the bank he would fire a single
round into the ceiling and then demand everyone in the branch lay on the ground,
before demanding the tellers hand over cash.
The most serious charge of
the indictment comes from a single robbery at a Bank Hapoalim in Be’er Ya’acov
last August, when police say Korsanosky was told by security guard Yaniv Engler
that he could not enter the branch wearing his motorcycle helmet. Police believe
Korsanosky then began fighting with Engler, before shooting him three times at
point blank range and leaving him in critical condition on the sidewalk, where
he later died of his wounds. Korsanosky then stole Engler’s pistol and walked
into the bank and robbed it.
Korsanosky made off with only NIS 6,000
shekels in the robbery that cost Engler his life, according to
police.
Police say that in six other robberies Korsanosky stole the bank
guard’s pistol, but only one of these guns has been recovered.
The court
on Monday approved the request to keep Korsanosky in detention until the end of
his trial, which has its next hearing in April.
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