After nearly nine hours barricaded on a rooftop in Bat Yam, the man suspected of murdering his wife—jumped from the building. Shortly afterward, he was pronounced dead. The man—partner and father to the children of the 51-year-old woman who was stabbed to death in their apartment—remained on the rooftop of a building on Eli Cohen Street throughout those hours. “Murderer, coward,” residents shouted at the suspect, who, according to witnesses, stabbed his wife multiple times.
The murder suspect before jumping
(Video: Magen David Adom)
After the murder, he climbed to the roof, where police forces tried to prevent him from harming himself. A team of Russian-speaking police negotiators attempted for hours to convince him to surrender. Additional police units joined the effort on the rooftop, but nearly nine hours after the initial emergency call, the man jumped to his death.
Police stated that neither of the couple had a criminal record and were not known to police for any prior domestic violence incidents. “Police forces are on the scene along with forensic investigators from the Ayalon District, and have begun collecting evidence,” the police said in a statement.
About a week and a half before the murder, the suspect had moved in with his close friend Ivan. “He said she didn’t want to see him, but didn’t say why,” Ivan recalled. “He seemed sad, but I never heard any aggression from him. Yesterday we sat and talked. During the ten days he stayed with me, he went to walk the dog at their place every morning and evening. We’ve known each other for years. I don’t know why it happened—I’m still in shock. I never heard him raise his voice.”
Neighbors reported hearing shouting from the family’s apartment shortly before the murder—while their daughter was also present. “We heard them arguing loudly in Russian,” one neighbor told Ynet. Another friend of the suspect, who lives nearby and spoke anonymously, said: “We were close. Every day we’d go up to the roof, smoke, talk. Ten days ago he left the house, yesterday he came back with a bag—and today this happened. She was very beautiful. It’s hard to speak about her in the past tense. I asked police to let me talk to him, but they refused.”
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Another neighbor said that after the murder, he heard someone urgently asking for an ambulance. “Then I suddenly heard shouting from the roof and saw the suspect.”
At the scene, Assistant Commissioner Daniel Hadad, head of the Ayalon District Police, said: “At 9:15 this morning we received a report of a man stabbing his wife in Bat Yam. Emergency and police forces rushed to the scene. Upon arrival, we found a woman lying on the floor in critical condition. Magen David Adom medics performed resuscitation efforts, but she was ultimately pronounced dead.”
He added: “We dispatched many units here. We conducted a situational assessment. Right now we have the murder scene and the rooftop where the suspect, her partner, had barricaded himself. A negotiation team is present. There are no prior complaints regarding the couple. It’s a tragic event.”