A policewoman and a municipal inspector were suspended on Wednesday after it
emerged that they had lied about arriving at the scene of a noisy group of
youths in Beersheba, hours before a father was stabbed to death while trying to
quiet them down.
Gadi Vichman went to speak to the youths two hours after
his wife, Michal, called police to the park near their home early on Saturday.
When the municipal patrol car failed to materialize, and the noise – which
included shouting and bottles breaking – continued, Vichman went downstairs to
speak to the youths, and was stabbed to death.
A Southern District Police
investigation concluded that the policewoman and inspector could not have
attended the scene despite being called, due to holes in their accounts of the
incident.
Both had claimed that they arrived at the park and found it
empty, but police suspect they did not even drive to the location.
“I’ve
asked for an in-depth examination of police conduct,” Police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan
Danino said during a press conference in Jerusalem. “The conduct of the officers
who dealt with the incident will be examined. This is severe by any
standard.”
Danino said the public’s lack of trust in police had to be
dealt with immediately, adding, “And we will deal with it.”
Michal said
the officers’ negligent conduct had directly led to her husband’s
murder.
Meanwhile, the main murder suspect reenacted the incident before
police on Wednesday.
The suspect, 22-year-old Eden Ohion of Beersheba, at
first denied having been at the scene, but later admitted that he had stabbed
Vichman, claiming it had been an act of self defense.
Donning a large
black kippa, Ohion showed homicide detectives his version of events, as a
weeping Michal sat overhead in her balcony surrounded by family.
Ohion
changed his story after other suspects who were with him began cooperating with
police.
Michal did not watch the reenactment, but asked relatives who
looked on whether the alleged killer appeared remorseful. She recalled how he
had cursed her and her husband after they said they would call police, and said
he would wait for their arrival.
Vichman had been trying to put his
two-year-old daughter to sleep, but was unable to do so because youths were
smashing bottles and shouting in the small park near his apartment building at 2
a.m. last Saturday morning.
Overcoming his wife’s attempts to block his
path, Vichman headed out into the street to speak to the youths, but was
head-butted and stabbed.
Police said the identity of the suspects had
become apparent hours after the incident, but arrests had come only days later
so police could survey the suspects, tap their phones and collect incriminating
evidence against them.