Last update - 00:00 11/04/2007
Drunken security guard suspected of chasing boy with loaded gun
By Yigal Hai, Haaretz Correspondent
A Netanya security guard is suspected of having chased a ten-year-old boy with a loaded and cocked gun at a schoolyard in the center of the city.
On Tuesday afternoon, passersby noticed the security guard, 47, chasing the boy and alerted the police. The police reported that the man was immediately fired from his job. They added that they would look into whether the suspect had been employed in accordance with regulations.
The police escorted the suspect to the station, but were unable to question him. "He was completely drunk and could not explain how he had gotten there, what he had been doing, or how he came to be chasing a child with a gun," the police reported.
The security guard had been assigned by the security company to guard a grocery store in Netanya, but the police found that on the day of the incident "it hadn't been his shift and he was not even on duty."
The man was questioned a second time Wednesday morning, but could not give any substantial details regarding the event. The police confiscated his weapon and released him under limiting conditions.
The Netanya police issued a statement saying "this is a very serious incident. The security guard had cocked his gun, and thus any wrong move could have killed the boy. Since he is not a criminal, the moment we confiscated his gun, he no longer posed a threat. The fact that he was released, and that we hadn't kept him in custody forever, does not mean that we will not press charges against him in the future."