Police arrest Eritrean suspected of murdering wife

Suspect identified by other Eritreans, police arrest man after dramatic pursuit.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Police at Tel Aviv Central Bus Station 370 (photo credit: Ricardo Mallaco)
Police at Tel Aviv Central Bus Station 370
(photo credit: Ricardo Mallaco)
Police arrested a 28-year-old Eritrean national in south Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood Saturday on suspicion of murdering his wife last week.
The body of an 18-year-old Eritrean woman was recovered on Wednesday night near the central bus station and police launched a murder investigation.
On Saturday night, two Eritrean men who identified the murdered woman’s husband on the street attempted to stop him.
The husband produced a knife and began chasing the two men, said Asst.-Cmdr.
David Gez, head of the Yiftah police sub-district in south Tel Aviv.
“One of the men who stopped the husband knew him as they were from the same village,” Gez added.
Within minutes, police patrol vehicles that were in the area arrived on the scene, and two policemen chased the knife-wielding suspect.
A Special Patrol Officer tackled the suspect and made an arrest.
“He is cooperating in questioning,” Gez said. “We expect a reenactment of the murder in the coming hours.”
Police do not yet know what exactly motivated the suspect to allegedly kill his wife, and did not elaborate on how the murder was carried out.
Detectives say they are aware of a dispute between the couple, which might be linked to the fact that the woman joined her husband in Israel without his permission, leaving behind their young son in Eritrea.
The suspect was found with cash on him, and police believe he was planning on hiding out. He worked in Kfar Saba for a private contractor doing gardening jobs, police added. The suspect lived with his brother in the same apartment as his wife.