Jerusalem: Bulldozer plows into police vehicle; terrorist killed

[Liviagray]

Tractor hammers into police squad car on Menachem Begin Boulevard in the capital; misses nearby bus. Two officers injured, attacker neutralized

Ronen Medzini
Published: 05.03.09

A tractor plowed into a police squad car on Menachem Begin Boulevard in Jerusalem on Thursday. The driver was apparently also trying to hit a nearby bus, but missed.

Two police officers were in the car when it was hit and both sustained mild injuries. Other police officers patrolling nearby shot the terrorist.

Magen David Adom emergency services were immediately dispatched to the area. The paramedics treated both the injured officers and the tractor driver, who reportedly sustained severe injuries.

One of the police officers and the terrorist were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. The other police officer was taken to the capital's Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The tractor driver, later identified as Mir'i Radeideh, 26, from the Beit Hanina neighborhood in east Jerusalem, died of his wounds.
Jerusalem District Police Commander Nissan Shaham recapped the event: "At approximately 1:10 pm we received a report of a terror attack taking place at Menachem Begin Boulevard. A Jerusalem Highway Patrol car was first to arrive at the scene and saw the bulldozer attempt to crush the police car and then lift it up.

"The officers shot the terrorist and neutralized him. Seconds later, a cab driver who pulled over fired as well, as did another police officer who arrived at the scene, and a force volunteer. The driver was critically injured, taken off the tractor and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died of his wounds. We found an open Quran book in the driver's compartment."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3681772,00.html

[Liviagray]

Jerusalem terrorist a married father
Terrorist who carried out attack earlier Thursday identified as 26-year-old east Jerusalem resident; 'We could see tractor hammering police car with its shovel,' policeman says as he recounts dramatic moments

Hanan Greenberg

The terrorist who carried out Thursday's tractor attack in Jerusalem was identified as Mir'i Radeideh, 26, of the Beit Hanina neighborhood in east Jerusalem. A policeman and policewoman were lightly hurt in the attack.

Radeideh was married and a father of one. He was carrying a Palestinian ID.

Thursday evening, security forces detained some of the terrorist's family members and took them in for questioning. His relatives told Ynet that they believe the event was an accident. According to a family member, Radeideh was "a normal person who did not hold extremist views" and thus his relatives do not believe he intended to carry out a terror attack.

'We thought it was an accident at first'
The entire event was witnessed by a busload of students attending the nearby Jerusalem Religious Arts School. Ora Zdaka, 16, told Ynet about the difficult moments: "We saw the tractor ram the police car.
We thought it was an accident at first, but then we saw it flip the car over. We thought he was going to come after us next and everyone started screaming.

"Then we heard some shots. When we finally managed to get off the bus we started running because we thought that they were shooting at us. The rest is a little hazy… all I remember is being evacuated."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3681960,00.html

[pinky]

Why are cab drivers shooting at people when the police are on the scene and taking control of the situation?

[Liviagray]

Why are cab drivers shooting at people when the police are on the scene and taking control of the situation?

Police was not on the scene. Police officers was in the car which terrorist tried to destroy. Police officers were injured, they can't do anything. In Israel there are allot of people who have registered weapons, like guards, police, soldiers, taxi drivers and others who need weapons for their job. 90% of Israel citizens served time in army(man and women) and everyone can defend themselves or people with weapon. Taxi driver saw that tractor driver tried to kill police officers, so he killed him. In our country sometimes seconds could save peoples life or destroy peoples life. It's not first time when Palestine's terrorist tried to kill people by using car or tractor. Once they killed 16 people which were on the bus station waiting for bus. All people in Israel are trained how to act when terrorists attacking people and the taxi driver did a right thing. If he wouldn't the police officers in the car would be killed and terrorist would attack civilians in the bus. In Israel people didn't stay away, when some terrorists try to kill people. This is the unspoken rule in our country. if someone trying to hurt people or terrorirsts atack happened, there would be many people who would help injured people or who would stop terrorists by shooting them. All our malls, supermarkets,hospitals, government offices are guarded and nobody can come in with unregistered weapon, because everyone got checked on entry.

[pinky]

The article you posted says this:
Other police officers patrolling nearby shot the terrorist.

.....A Jerusalem Highway Patrol car was first to arrive at the scene and saw the bulldozer attempt to crush the police car and then lift it up.

"The officers shot the terrorist and neutralized him. Seconds later, a cab driver who pulled over fired as well, as did another police officer who arrived at the scene
Obviously, there were law enforcement officials at the scene. I completely understand that if there are no police at the scene, that someone else would work to neutralize the threat. But if there are police on the scene, and able to manage things, civilians should stay out of the way. Otherwise, there is more danger of innocent people getting hurt in a crossfire.

Just makes sense to me.

[Liviagray]

The article you posted says this:

Obviously, there were law enforcement officials at the scene. I completely understand that if there are no police at the scene, that someone else would work to neutralize the threat. But if there are police on the scene, and able to manage things, civilians should stay out of the way. Otherwise, there is more danger of innocent people getting hurt in a crossfire.

Just makes sense to me.

In Israel it's different. If there is a terrorists attack everyone is capable to help police. In Israel usual police job is different from the same police job in US. In US police take care about everything and civilians usually didn't get involved in police job. Our police is working with domestic crime or criminals. But terrorists attacks usually taken care by police, army or army police (we have this kind of police too), guards or citizens, who are more close to the terrorist than any police. Police on the scene is not ruling out citizens help. It's normal for Israel, the country where risk of terrorist attacks is very high and everyone, civilian or not could be attacked any time or in any place. Even in their own home.

And in this articles I read cab driver saw the terrorist tried to stand after he was shoot by police and that's why he shoot him too. he did it because nobody know if this terrorist have bomb or not? The faster terrorist will be killed the less he would have time to detonate his bomb (if he had one). Most homicide terrorist usually have bombs around their bodies. Terrorists usually trying to kill as many people as they can.