Police arrest 2 youths over armed robbery, shooting

Ramle youths accused of holding up kiosk at night, shooting owner's 15-year-old son who resisted.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
arrest 311 R (photo credit: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard )
arrest 311 R
(photo credit: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard )
Two youths from Ramle are under arrest on suspicion of carrying out an armed robbery on a kiosk last month that left a teenager in critical condition.
On the night of July 14, two masked gunmen held up the kiosk and encountered resistance from the owner’s 15-year-old son who was watching the business.
One of the gunmen opened fire on the teenager, shooting him in the neck. He remains hospitalized in serious condition.
Police from the Shfela police sub-district set up a special investigation team following the shooting. Evidence collected by the detectives led to a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old from Ramle’s Juraish neighborhood, police spokeswoman Leah Zohar said.
“They are also suspected of carrying out two additional armed robberies,” Zohar told The Jerusalem Post. In the police questioning room, the 17-year-old confessed to the incident, though the 18-yearold has denied any links.
“We have evidence linking them to the scene,” Zohar said.
A Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extended the custody of both suspects by several days.
After the robbery and shooting, the gunmen ended up leaving the store with nothing.
The victim’s cousin, who was in the shop at the time of the incident, said one of the suspects punched the boy in the nose before a gun was produced and two shots were fired, striking the teen in the neck and shoulder.
The two men then fled the scene.
Doctors at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Tzrifin – where paramedics had rushed the injured youth – said he was in serious, but stable condition, and had been put in a medically induced coma and hooked up to a respirator.
The teen’s father told media that his son helped out in the family business every day after school. The father had gone to visit a terminally ill friend in the hospital with his wife when the shooting occurred, the father said.
He said he understood his son’s reaction, but called on business owners and employees to hand over cash if faced with armed robbers.