Parents of Solomon Tekah file suit against officer who killed him

The parents of Solomon Tekah, an Ethiopian-Israeli who was shot and killed by a policeman last year, filed a suit for NIS 2.5 million against the officer involved in the incident and against Israel Police.

The family accused the police and the officer involved of libel against Tekah, despite Tekah's father stating he had faith in the system and was waiting for objective results from an investigation into the incident. The suit also claims that the handling of the scene including the failure to provide assistance to Tekah lead to the tragic end to the incident.

"The suit is a first step that the family is doing in the journey to disperse the fog created around the tragic affair whose facts are very clear, but there are those who are taking care to blur them," said the family's attorney Evyatar Katzir, according to Maariv, The Jerusalem Post’s sister paper.

"We regret the continuation of various claims and slander against the police and the officer involved, while the legal process is conducted and the matter has not yet been decided," said Israel Police in response to the suit, according to Maariv.

 

In July, The Police Investigations Department (PID) sent a letter to the parents of Tekah defending the findings of the police ballistics department and the state’s forensics institute (not connected to the police) that the bullet, which the policeman fired and which killed Tekah, was a ricochet.

An autopsy carried out by the PID found that Tekah had a very high blood alcohol level and residual drugs in his body at the time he was shot, according to Maariv.

The police placed the policeman who shot and killed Tekah on forced leave back in July.

The decision came following a July decision by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court to free him and allow him to enter any police precinct besides his regular one in the Haifa area.