Police suspect 2 Arab Israelis shot dead Ramle man

Homicide detectives have not ruled out that shooting of George Sa'ado was nationalistically motivated.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Forensic police unit (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Forensic police unit
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Police believe two Arab-Israeli youths from Ramle both shot dead 51-year-old George Sa’ado, while he was walking his dog in the city on Sunday night.
In the hours after the shooting, homicide detectives from the central district’s central unit arrested six youths.
During questioning over recent days, one of the suspects, a 15-year-old, confessed to shooting Sa’ado dead.
Police think a 17-year-old suspect also fired shots into Sa’ado, and believe that there are two prime murder suspects, rather than one.
“We haven’t ruled out the suspicion that this was a nationalistically motivated shooting,” a police source said.
“The suspects are giving contradictory testimonies,” the source added.
In addition to the two main murder suspects and the four additional suspects arrested hours after the shooting, police arrested two more Arab Israeli youths in Ramle on Thursday on suspicion of aiding and abetting the shooters.
“This was a lightning-quick investigation. We had six suspects in custody within hours,” the source said.
Magen David Adom paramedics found Sa’ado lying on the street, and rushed him to the Assaf Harofe Medical Center in Tzrifin, but were unable to revive him.
Representatives of the Arab community in Ramle’s Juraish neighborhood, near where the shooting occurred, visited mourning members of Sa’ado’s family on Thursday to express their condolences and sorrow over the incident.
Sa’ado leaves behind five children.