OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Agencies)
A Jewish man shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded another in an apparent shooting spree in central Jerusalem on Tuesday, police said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators were considering all motives, including nationalistic, as one of the victims apparently was an Arab.
The suspect was apprehended after wounding a man on one of the city's main streets and then told officers that he had shot dead another man at a location close to the Old City.
" The suspect was questioned by police at the scene and said he had killed a man in central Jerusalem, we cannot rule out any motives including nationalistic " Micky Rosenfeld, Israeli police "The suspect was questioned by police at the scene and said he had killed a man in central Jerusalem, we cannot rule out any motives including nationalistic," Rosenfeld said.
He added that the man was undergoing a psychological evaluation.
Another police spokesman said: "The shooter was practicing meditation close to the Old City when he was approached by an Arab whom he feared was about to attack him and apparently shot the Arab man dead, saying it was an act of self-defense."
Spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby added that the man had fled to a nearby street where he was approached by another man who apparently asked the shooter for a cigarette and that person, believed to be Jewish, was shot and wounded.
The spokesman said the suspect was authorized to carry a weapon.
For several years, at the height of the violent Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, the predominantly Jewish part of the city was the scene of many shootings and suicide bombings carried out by Palestinian gunmen.
Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and considers the whole city as its capital, a claim that does not have international recognition.
About 750,000 people live in the city, about two thirds are Jews and the rest Arab Muslims and Christians. The Palestinian Authority wants Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state. |
