As reported in BIN, widespread protests in solidarity with Salomon Tekah have rocked the entire nation. With over a hundred wounded and arrested and traffic in some of Israel’s busiest arteries halted for hours on end, many beg the question -What started it all? More importantly, is it even true? 

Some claim that on June 30, Salomon Tekah was shot in cold blood by a policeman because the latter is racist and dislikes Ethiopians. But according to an expose revealed by the Israeli news site Kikar, the truth paints a far different picture.Recent ballistics tests confirm that the off-duty police officer, who sources close to the matter name as Baruch Ben-Izri, did indeed shoot the concrete and that the deadly bullet did in fact ricochet into Tekah’s chest. The test also showed that the bullet that was extracted from Tekah’s body was fragmented and therefore consistent with the police officer’s testimony. According to the police officer’s version of events, the series of events that led up to the deadly shooting was as follows:

• The policeman was with his wife and three children in a park. 
• He had just finished a course for police officers with distinction last week (He was a member of an elite police unit.) 
• He was in the park but not on duty when he saw a brawl: a drunken Ethiopian gang assaulting a younger kid. 
• He went to disperse the rival gangs and was beaten, then was identified as a policeman and received more beatings and they started throwing stones at him. 
• In the midst of all this, they began pushing his children (including a 5 month old baby). In accordance with procedures, the policeman, shot with a firearm at the concrete in order to disperse the Ethiopian mob. (He didn’t fire in the air because according to his testimony, the area was crowded) 
• The single bullet ricocheted from the ground and hit Salomon Tekah in the chest. 
• The policeman stayed behind and performed cardiac resuscitation on the victim.

It should be noted that Tekah was supposed to be under house arrest and is known to the police.

However Amir Elbaz, the father of one of the boys involved denies the officer’s recollection of events. He claims that the policeman shot them in cold blood and was “trying to be a sheriff” he told Israel’s Kann News.