A 25-year-old man grappling with mental illness has been charged with aggravated assault, not attempted murder, for an incident where he threatened an officer with scissors and was subsequently shot multiple times by police in Jerusalem.
As reported by Kann News, the indictment filed today in the District Court reveals the accused had a history of mental health challenges which authorities knew about. His brother reported that just two days before the violent confrontation, their mother had pleaded for his hospitalization, warning he posed a danger.
According to the charges, on the day of the incident about two weeks ago, the young man left his apartment and began threatening neighbors on Shmuel HaNavi street. When police arrived to find him trying to break into parked cars, an officer gave chase.
Court documents state the accused then stole a bicycle from a bystander in an attempt to flee the scene. The pursuit continued for hundreds of meters until the suspect lost control of the bicycle.
At that point, the officer reported seeing what appeared to be a knife and ordered the suspect to drop the object, which was actually a pair of scissors. When backup arrived and the young man refused commands, an officer fired a taser, striking him in the neck.
The confrontation then escalated, with the suspect allegedly trying to stab the original officer with the scissors. That prompted the officer to fire four shots at the man's lower body, missing him. But when the suspect continued advancing, the officer fired again, this time striking him twice in the abdomen and seriously wounding him.
While police initially sought to charge the man with attempted murder of the officer, prosecutors determined the evidence merited the lesser charge of aggravated assault, along with threats and robbery counts related to the bicycle theft.
The accused's lawyer criticized a "improper conduct" by authorities, noting his client did not receive a required psychiatric evaluation until the same morning the indictment was filed, months after the incident.
The case has raised scrutiny around law enforcement protocols and mental health resources. With the young man's family saying they tried to get him hospitalized beforehand, questions remain about what could have prevented such a volatile and violent outburst from occurring.