Israel Police lifted a gag order Wednesday night on the arrest of three suspects from the Pardes Katz neighborhood in Bnei Brak thought to be involved in the shooting at a gay youth center in 2009, in which a counselor and a young woman were murdered. Police now believe that the motive for the murder was revenge and not a hate crime, and have brought in a fourth person for questioning as they believe he can verify the three suspects' motive. The four are set to appear before the magistrate's court for a hearing on extending their remand. The arrest comes two days before Tel Aviv's annual gay pride parade; the details of the investigation and motives being looked into are still restricted. The three suspects, in their 20s and 40s, are suspected of murder, accessory to murder, conspiracy to commit a crime and a plethora of other offenses including illegal possession of weapons, breaking and entering, arson and drug offenses. Police do not believe the fourth suspect was involved in the murder, and are holding him only because of dramatic information that he allegedly possesses as well as suspected involvement in a crime in the distant past. The arrest was reportedly violent, as two of the suspects confronted the arresting officers. Their attorneys say that the three are refusing to cooperate with the police. All three have denied the allegations against them. "My client has explained to investigators that he was a minor at the time of the incident. He hopes that the facts emerge and that he is released soon," said the attorney representing the main suspect who allegedly fired the gun. "We must not jump to conclusions, let us wait and see what happens at the hearing. Every few years suspects are arrested to the sound of bells and whistles, but at this stage we need to wait." The attorney representing another suspect said that his client "has no idea why he was arrested." A police representative said during the hearing that investigators had been following the suspects for several months. "The suspect incriminated himself," the officer said, referring to the main suspect. "He went berserk during his investigation when he was told that the police had evidence against him." According to the police, the suspect went AWOL from the IDF the day after the shooting, for four months.
Following the recent arrests, the Israeli GLBT Association issued a statement saying: "We are being continuously briefed by the police on the status of the investigation and current developments. We trust and believe that the authorities will not rest until they apprehend the culprits and justice is served."
The victims' families have chosen to stay quiet following the news of the arrests, though relatives of Nir Katz in Modiin and Liz Trobishi in Holon said that detectives had informed them of the latest developments in the case. Sivan Gabrielovich, Katz's cousin, told Channel 10 Wednesday night that her family "is both relieved and shocked, a lot of mixed feelings wrapped together. I hope that the murder really is solved, and that someone will pay for what happened."
Yonatan Bocks, who was seriously wounded in the shooting, told Channel 2 Wednesday night he wants to "look the killer in the eyes" and be able to start his life again.
Immediately after the murder, the investigation was handed to the central unit of Tel Aviv District Police, which placed a gag order on the investigation. For a while police could not find any leads to follow, until a few months ago when a development led detectives to arrest three suspects in their homes in central Israel.
"Today we arrested three suspects in the youth center case, and we have many more hours of work left in our continuing investigation," Tel Aviv District Police Commander Bentzi Sau, who entered the post only two days ago, said Wednesday night.
The investigation has taken up thousands of work hours and has been viewed as one of the most expensive investigations in Israel's history. Hundreds of detectives worked with few leads to follow, trying to sniff out potential suspects, even getting the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) involved at some points, without much progress, until now. Police were confounded as to how a person could walk into a building, fire at teens and then leave without anyone taking notice or identifying him as he escaped.
Following the murder, foundations were set up both in Israel and abroad to identify with the victims of the shooting. GLBT organizations in Israel held rallies of support for the victims and to protest homophobia in Israel. Some in the GLBT community claimed that haredi MKs tacitly legitimized violence against homosexuals, one example of which was Shas MK Nissim Zeev's statement a year and half before the murder in which he said that homosexuals "need to be treated like the bird flu."