The main suspect in the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir is an eyeglasses salesman with a small store in the haredi Jerusalem neighborhood of Geula and a history of mental illness.
Above: Yosef Chaim Ben David
Leader Of Gang That Killed Arab Boy Named
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The main suspect in the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir is an eyeglasses salesman with a small store in the haredi Jerusalem neighborhood of Geula, Ha’aretz reported.
Yosef Chaim Ben David, who lived in the settlement of Adam near Jerusalem, reportedly picked up the other two suspects, both 16-year-old minors, in his car in the pre-dawn hours of July 2 and drove through East Jerusalem looking for someone vulnerable enough to kidnap easily.
In Shuafat they saw Abu Khdeir sitting on the steps of his family’s electronics store, waiting for his father. The three kidnapped the boy – who looked much younger than 16 – and drove him to the Jerusalem Forest.
Once there, Ben David hit Abu Khdeir on the head with a wrench while his two accomplices kicked the boy.
Then they covered Abu Khdeir with gasoline and burned him alive.
Some of Ben David’s customers reportedly claim he is a nice man and say he has no known ties to right wing extremists.
Ben David studied in an unnamed in a yeshiva in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood.
Ben David has obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Approximately one and half years ago, he told the psychiatrist treating him that he sometimes had thoughts of killing his baby daughter, and tried to strangle her once. The psychiatrist reported that to police and Ben David was arrested. He was released into a rehabilitative program and was never charged.
His attorneys reportedly intend to plead temporary insanity.
All three suspects reportedly admitted to kidnapping and murder and reenacted the crime for police.
The three suspects also reportedly tried to kidnap a 7-year-old Arab boy in East Jerusalem less than 24 hours before the Abu Khdeir kidnapping. Police apparently mishandled the report of that kidnapping attempt.