Tel Aviv police announce significant development in investigation into 2009 shooting at gay youth center that left 2 dead.
By BEN HARTMAN
Tel Aviv Police have made a significant advancement in their investigation of the August 2009 shooting at the Bar Noar gay youth center that left two dead and 15 wounded, but said Monday that the development is not necessarily a breakthrough.Though the specific details of the development are banned from publication by a gag order, Tel Aviv Police Chief Aharon Aksol said cops are hopeful it could help them crack the case that has been a top investigative target of the Tel Aviv district for the past three years.At around 11 p.m. on August 1, 2009, a masked gunman entered the youth center’s building on Nachmani Street and opened fire with a pistol on teenagers holding a social event in the basement. The shooting took the lives of Nir Katz, 26, a volunteer and counselor at the center, and Liz Trobishi, 16. An additional 15 people, most of them minors, were injured in the shooting.The shooting has remained a major focus of police investigative efforts since it took place, and every few months reports of a breakthrough have surfaced and disappeared with no arrests.In the days after the shooting, support for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in Israel was expressed by politicians from across the political spectrum, and protests and vigils were held to mark the most violent attack ever in the country on the the LGBT community.