Soldier who shot terrorist: "Nothing went through my mind except that he had to be neutralized."
By JPOST.COM STAFFkikar tzahal attack wounded 224 88(photo credit: AP)
The attacker who drove a car into a group of soldiers and civilians in Jerusalem's Kikar Tzahal on Monday night was going at top speed and might have reversed and hurt more people had he not been neutralized, Lt. Elad Amar, the officer who shot and killed the attacker later said of the incident.
"He drove towards the soldiers at top speed, plowed onto the traffic island, ran over soldiers and civilians and then continued, ramming into a building," Amar told Army Radio. "At that point I assessed that it was a terror attack and decided to neutralize the driver so that he wouldn't be able to reverse the car and continue the attack."
Recounting the moments before he engaged the attacker, Amar said, "I ran towards him, meanwhile cocking my weapon, and shot several rounds at him from close range. The driver was beginning to recover when I came up to him and the car was splayed into the wall. Nothing went through my mind at that moment except that the terrorist had to be neutralized."
The terrorist was identified as Qassem Mughrabi, 19, from Jebl Mukaber in east Jerusalem, the same town that was home to Ala Abu Dhaim, who murdered eight yeshiva students in the Mercaz Harav attack in March of this year.
In July, for the second time in three weeks, an Arab bulldozer driver from east Jerusalem rammed his construction vehicle into a city bus and several cars on a central thoroughfare in the capital, wounding 15 people before being shot dead by a Druse border police officer and a civilian passerby.
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report
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