The Police Investigations Department on Sunday closed the case against the police officer involved in shooting and killing a 33-year-old mentally ill man in Haifa after he had attempted to stab him.
A decision issued by the Justice Ministry said that the officer was called to the scene by the mentally ill man’s parents on March 29 after he became unruly in his home and that the policeman merely exercised self-defense.
Despite closing the case as groundless on a legal basis, the PID called the incident a tragedy.
Also, the department said that the Police must learn lessons to use smarter tactics in the future to avoid a violent situation where possible.
When the police officer arrived at the scene, Munir Anabtau pulled out a knife and tried to stab him repeatedly, injuring him slightly, PID said.
The family has denied that this was the case to Israeli media.
After attempting warnings, the police officer fired three shots at Anabtau, hitting him twice and mortally wounding him. He was transferred to Rambam Medical Center where he died of his injuries.
Shairin, Anabtau’s sister, told KAN news that he did not have anything in his hand and was not trying to stab police when he was shot. “We saw the knife on the table,” she said. “He put it on the table and got down to wait for me. He was running away from them.” His family claimed that he was mentally disabled.
A statement issued by the family later on Monday blamed police for using poor judgment and acting in an unprofessional manner.
"Trained police officers are supposed to be able to neutralize a suspect, a mentally ill individual, without killing him," the victim's family said.
Attorney Albir Nakhas, representing the family, added that "it can't be that any mentally ill person will find his death by the hands of police officers, who are expected to handle the situation professionally."
The March incident was the latest in a series of killings of Arab-Israelis since the beginning of 2021 – even before the huge wave of violence between Jewish and Arab Israelis this month – in which police gunfire was involved.
In February, Ahmad Hijazi, a 22-year-old nursing student from Tamra, was shot and killed during a firefight between police and criminals in the Arab majority city near Haifa. It is unclear who fired the bullet that killed Hijazi.
At the time, Arab-Israelis expressed outrage at what they saw as police negligence.
Last year, Border Police shot and killed 32-year-old special-needs student Iyad al-Halak, a resident of Wadi Joz in east Jerusalem, near Lions’ Gate of the Old City after they noticed him holding a “suspicious object” that they said looked like a gun. The suspicious object was never found. After Halak fled the scene, police officers pursued him, shooting at him multiple times and eventually killing him.
A police officer has been indicted in that shooting.