Police search for suspects in Haifa, Jaffa killings

Police are on the hunt for suspects in the murder of Vladimir Drunov, 23, who was stabbed in the chest outside a nightclub in Haifa Sunday night.

Police said Monday that Drunov, who died from his injuries, had no criminal record and they are trying to figure out what led to the attack.

Police said they do not know if Drunov was involved in an altercation with the killers earlier inside the club, only that he was inside the establishment earlier in the night, and was found stabbed shortly after 3 a.m. on the pavement outside the club, located in the “Check Post” industrial area in the city.

Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived at the scene initiated CPR procedures and rushed the victim to the Rambam Medical Center in critical condition.

Police said they are searching for witnesses to the murder, which is being investigated by the Coastal Region branch of the YAMAR investigative unit.

Drunov was not the only young man murdered in Israel on Sunday night, though in different circumstances from the killing of a 25-year-old Jaffa native earlier in the night.

In the earlier murder, the victim, Morad Siksik, was shot and killed by unknown assailants on Yefet Street, the main thoroughfare of Jaffa.

Tel Aviv Police spokeswoman Orit Friedman said Siksik was shot in the head and chest by someone who fired from a passing vehicle. He was critically wounded in the shooting and taken to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon where he soon died.

Friedman said police are still investigating how the man arrived at the hospital, and who evacuated him from the scene of the crime. Police have tasked the Tel Aviv branch of YAMAR with the investigation.

According to Friedman, the victim had a history of run-ins with the police, but would not elaborate on what police suspect led to the shooting.