J'lem: Father suspected of beating baby girl to death

The Jerusalem Police arrested a local city resident on suspicion that he beat and strangled his eight-month-old daughter to death Thursday night, following a heated argument with his wife in the capital's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood.  

The man, 23-year-old Nachman Inshin, was evaluated Friday morning by the district psychiatrist, who ruled that he was fit to be arrested.

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ruled that he would remain in custody for seven more days and would undergo a psychiatric observation on behalf of the State and a psychiatrist appointed by the defense.

The father's lawyer, Yaakov Kaminsky, said following the remand hearing: "This was the community members' failure. He was acting weird yesterday, they sent him to a psychiatric observation, but instead of going he went home. Unfortunately, what happened happened. This incident could not have been anticipated. He has been hospitalized several times, but he is not a violent person."

Crowd forms near murder scene (Gil Yohanan)

The shocking incident took place as Inshin's wife left the house after the two argued, leaving the baby with her father. A neighbor who reportedly heard cries for help coming from the apartment called the police and emergency services.

Police forces broke down the door and arrested the man, who tried to assault the officers. It was later ascertained that he is mentally unstable.

One of the family's neighbors, considered the key witness, told the police: "I saw him holding the girl's led, banging her head on the floor and shouting, 'Get out of here, I'm going to kill her.' I managed to climb on the balcony together with a police volunteer, we broke the glass and entered. I ran towards the door, but it was locked. While I was trying to open it, the volunteer took control of the guy, who raised his hands and told him, 'I have nothing, I have nothing.'"

The officers found the baby, Fruma Inshin, in respiratory distress and severely bruised. She was rushed to the Bikur Holim Hospital in the capital, where doctors made a desperate attempt to save her life, but to no avail.

Several dozens of haredim arrived at the hospital and tried to attack the policemen who were guarding the site. Some tried to prevent an autopsy being performed on the baby's body. Two were arrested.

Once of the EMTs called to the scene told Ynet the sight of the little girl was horrific: "I've never seen anything like it. She was covered with welts and bleeding all over."  

'He was living on pills'

Baby Fruma was buried Thursday night in a small family funeral. One of the relatives told Ynet, "We were expecting something bad to happen since yesterday afternoon, but no one could imagine it would be this bad."

According to the family relative, the father who he said was "living on pills," recently encountered economic hardship. "I spoke to him several days ago and he was just fine, but yesterday he was extremely nervous," he said. "When I heard about the incident on his street, I immediately understood that it was him."

The Inshin family is a deeply rooted Jerusalemite family, which belongs to the Breslov community in Mea Shearim. Nachman Inshin has an older son from his first marriage, which ended in a divorce.

One of Inshin's community members, who studied with him at the yeshiva, estimated that he was psychotic. "People say that he looked normal, but those who know say he was on pills," he said. "His ex-wife left him because she said he was crazy, but he managed to create the impression that she was the problematic element in their relations."