A longer, unedited video of the fatal shooting of a Hebron teen by a female
Border Police officer was released on Thursday night, and it appears it may
contradict the official police account of the December 12
incident.
Uploaded to YouTube by Channel 10 reporter Roy Sharon on
Thursday night, the 1:08 minute video is uncut and appears to show that the
third and final shot fired at 17-yearold Muhammad al-Salaymeh was fired after
his back was turned to the officers and he was hunched over a few meters away,
walking away from the police checkpoint.
As with the original video, it
is hard to tell exactly what is taking place. The video is shot from above and
is dark and grainy. It shows a few flashes coming from what is apparently the
service rifle of Border Police officer “N.,” who shot and killed Salaymeh.
During the final flash, Salaymeh appears to be leaving the scene.
Near
the beginning of the video, Salaymeh walks slowly up to the post and speaks to
one of the officers, before appearing to show him his ID.
He then slowly
walks away, before turning to face an officer behind him, and then quickly
placing his right hand against the officer’s temple and striking him hard with
his right fist. The two then fall back, begin struggling and tumble off to the
right, before N. emerges on the scene with her rifle.
Speaking to The
Jerusalem Post shortly after the shooting, N. said that when her fellow officer
was attacked she got into position, found a clear line of fire and then quickly
let off three rounds. In the longer version of the video, it is clear that the
final shot was separated from the first two by a few seconds, and that Salaymeh
had moved away by then.
Even in the new, uncut video it is hard to tell
if Salaymeh was holding a fake metal gun as the Border Police say, though he
does appear to be holding a shiny object in his right hand.
Following the
incident, the Border Police released an image of what they said was the toy gun
Salaymeh pulled.
Salaymeh was celebrating his birthday on the day when he
died. His family claims that he was heading out to buy a birthday cake and did
not pull a fake gun on the soldiers. The day after his death, Palestinians
clashed with soldiers and Border Police officers for hours across the West Bank.