Israeli police commanders disciplined over Gay Pride stabbings

By

Eleven Israeli police officers, including the chief of Jerusalem's police and two district commanders, were disciplined on Sunday over a stabbing spree at the city's Gay Pride parade by a Jewish zealot who had been flagged as a threat.

Seven of the officers were reassigned and four formally reprimanded in what Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan described as personal sanctions "on an unprecedented scale" given the "grave events which could have been prevented".

Yishai Schlissel, who has confessed to the stabbings, is an ultra-Orthodox Jew who said in court that he had been doing God's will by killing a 16-year-old girl and wounding five others participants in the July 30 march, which he described as a religious abomination.

Schlissel had recently been freed from prison, where he had served time for stabbing three people at the 2005 Jerusalem Gay Pride parade.

An Israeli police spokeswoman said in a statement that officers had been instructed to be on the lookout for Schlissel and bar him for this year's event, but had failed to do so due to negligence or faulty communication.

Some of the officers who were reassigned were also barred from promotion or command positions for periods of between five and seven years, the police statement said.

Join the Discussion
More News
Hannah Kobayashi

Family of 'Trafficked' Hawaii Woman Who Vanished After Flying to New York Reveal Eerie Final Texts: 'I Got Tricked'

Carey Dale Grayson

Last Meal Revealed For Alabama Death Row Inmate Who Butchered Hitchhiker, Cut Off Her Fingers

Stefanie Damron

Stefanie Damron Missing: Police Intensify Search For Maine Teen 2 Months After Vanishing Near Woods

Alexandrea G. Ring

Pregnant Indiana Mother 'Threw' Her Baby Daughter After She Cried, Police Say

Real Time Analytics