“ I think any citizen would do this, to prevent a killing spree,” says the Israeli bus driver who shot the terrorist.
An Israeli man said he shot a terrorist who murdered four people in a bloody rampage in the southern city of Beersheba on Tuesday, after unsuccessfully asking the killer to disarm and recognizing his murderous intent.
Video footage shows the agitated, knife-wielding attacker — 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, who had just stabbed a woman, rammed a cyclist with his car, and then stabbed several people in a nearby shopping mall — being shot after lunging at a man with a gun.
“I saw a terrorist and told myself I had to do something,” the man, a bus driver named Arthur, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
“I stopped by a traffic circle and saw there was an accident … I saw a person walking and waving his hand. I said, ‘I have to check it out, it could be an attack. When I got closer to him, I saw a knife in his hand. And I did what I could.”
“I went out the bus, and I spoke with the terrorist, told him to lower the knife.” he recounted. “The terrorist said ‘no, I’m not lowering the knife.’ At some point, he approached me, lunged at me, and I made a judgment call.”
Asked if he was afraid, Arthur said, “Every person is afraid. There’s no such thing as a person who isn’t afraid. But I was calm and exercised judgment.”
“I’ve never been in this situation,” he reflected. “But after it was clear that I shot him, I understood that he went on a killing spree in those shops. Now I understand that he killed. That’s it.”
“When he told me that he won’t lower his knife, and after a time I saw that he is constantly trying to kill me, getting close to me … after I saw that he really wanted to kill me, I made the judgment call and shot him.”
Speaking of the terrorist’s victims, the bus driver recounted, “I saw a person lying on the floor, covered in blood.”
Asked about the reactions inspired by his brave intervention, he said, “I’m not looking for people to tell me, ‘Good job.’ I did what I could do. I think any citizen would do this, to prevent a killing spree.”
He said he never previously used his gun, which he carries for personal protection.
Three of the four fatalities in Tuesday’s rampage have been identified: Laura Yitzhak, a 43-year-old mother of three girls; the Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, a Chabad emissary; and Doris Yahbas, a 49-year-old and mother of three.
Their murder was lauded by the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and condemned by the Israeli government, including the Arab-Israeli party Ra’am.