Man on rampage stabs mother, girlfriend, 2 men

Police arrest Kirat Yam man, 25, for stabbing mother to death before stabbing, wounding girlfriend, two men.

By BEN HARTMAN
Arrest [illustrative] 370 (photo credit: Nir Elias/Reuters)
Arrest [illustrative] 370
(photo credit: Nir Elias/Reuters)
A 25-year-old man in Kiryat Yam went on a rampage on Monday afternoon, stabbing his mother to death, before stabbing and wounding his girlfriend and two men before he was cornered and arrested by police.
The man’s violent spree began around 2:15 p.m., when Zvulun Station police got a call that there were two women with stab wounds lying in an apartment in the city. As police and paramedics were responding to that call, they received a call about another stabbing on a street a couple kilometers away, and quickly realized that the two attacks may be linked.
While investigators were at the scene, they discovered that the son of the deceased stabbing victim was seen fleeing the scene in his car.
Authorities launched a search for the man, who was found soon after, spotted by a police helicopter as he was hiding in the tall grass of a field next to a stream.
Shortly after the man was found, his mother, 54-yearold Batya Ohana, died of her wounds. At press time, the man’s girlfriend, 25, was still being treated at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa in moderate condition.
The other two victims were two middle-aged men, who had the misfortune of getting in the man’s way while he fled the murder scene. One of the two men, Avraham Zabtani, said he was rear-ended by the man and when he got out of his car to ask him why he hit him, the suspect returned to his car to retrieve a knife and then stabbed him. The man then stabbed and lightly wounded a bystander at the scene.
Coastal District police said that as of Monday night, the man had refused to say anything about the stabbings, repeatedly telling detectives that he had no idea what they were talking about.
Police said the suspect has no criminal record and they are currently dealing with the possibility that he was suffering from a sudden, overwhelming fit of rage. They added that only a few hours before the murder, he had driven his mother home from Rambam Medical Center, where she was being treated for cancer.
On Tuesday, the man will be brought for a remand hearing at the Krayot Magistrate’s Court. His courtappointed state attorney said on Monday that she will request that he be examined by a psychiatrist in the coming days.