Slain cop's dad: Rami was crazy about Border Police

Family and friends mourn policeman killed in attack at entrance to Jerusalem's Shuafat refugee camp.

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
border police mourn 224. (photo credit: AP)
border police mourn 224.
(photo credit: AP)
Friends and family poured into the Zoari household in Beersheba throughout the day Saturday to pay their respects to the family of Cpl. Rami Zoari, 20, who was killed in the Thursday night attack at the entrance to Jerusalem's Shuafat refugee camp. "Rami was crazy about the Border Police," father Shlomo said of his son, nicknamed "Rambo," who had hoped to become an officer on the force one day. "He planned to take a squad commander course and then [attend] officer training school." Instead, Zoari, who was already a candidate for officer training school after less than a year of mandatory service, was laid to rest Friday afternoon at the military cemetery in Beersheba. His parents said they had feared the worst when they heard of a terror attack at the Shuafat checkpoint and were then unable to reach their son on his cellphone. From her sickbed in Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem, Shoshana Samendoyev, the border policewoman who was seriously wounded in the attack, described what happened to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter. "I tried to cock my weapon, but then I fainted," Samendoyev told Dichter. "I came to a couple of minutes later and I could feel I was being fired on, so I cocked my weapon and started firing at a vehicle I could barely see. Then I fainted again because of loss of blood." Samendoyev said she had tried to call out to Zoari, but had received no reply. She had then crawled to the barrier in time to see an IDF jeep arrive, before losing consciousness again. Samendoyev is a "true fighter who fired back at the assailant and called for help," Dichter said. "These policemen [toil] day and night for the security of Jerusalem and the state."