Police arrest ATV hit-and-run suspect
Following secret investigation, officers arrive at home of man suspected of running over teenage joggers on Friday. Attorney: He's innocent
Police arrested on Tuesday a man who is suspected of running over two young female joggers with an all-terrain vehicle near Kibbutz Givat Brenner last Friday, Ynet has learned.
The Magistrate's Court in Rehovot extended Yaniv Fayrovskin's remand by five days. The presiding judge wrote that the 23-year-old resident of Moshav Ganei Yochanan "linked himself to the (scene of the accident) and to the time the relevant incident occurred."
Suspect on his ATV
The suspect has denied any connection to the hit-and-run accident. However, his ATV has been seized and transferred to Israel Police's Division of Identification and Forensic Science.
Related articles:
During Friday's incident, an ATV driver hit two teenage girls who were training with a group of runners in open fields near Kibbutz Givat Brenner.
According to police, the joggers yelled at the driver after he drove recklessly and left them in a cloud of dust. In response, the driver turned around and ran over the teenage girls, who were evacuated to Rehovot's Kaplan Medical Center with limb fractures.
'I want my life back.' Tigist Bito (Archive photo: Daniel Kimchi)
Following a secret investigation, which included surveillance, officers arrived at the suspect's home on Tuesday night and detained him.
ATV seized by police (Photo: Avi Muallem)
The suspect's attorney, Itay Shochat, said his client was innocent. "He is a normative man who works in the family business," the lawyer said.
"He was arrested only because he owns an ATV similar to the one police are looking for."
Shochat said Fayrovski does not have a criminal record. According to the attorney, the suspect admitted to riding his ATV in the area on Friday but denied any connection to the hit-and-run accident.
Investigators reportedly used footage from security cameras installed in the area to track down the ATV. The man who transferred the footage to the police said it shows the suspect's escape route.
Tigist Bito, 15, who sustained moderate to serious injuries in the accident, said a few days after the incident "all I want is to have my previous life back - to stand up, walk and jog again."
Bito competed in the World Schools Athletics Championships in Malta earlier this year and was considered a rising long-distance star for Israel’s Rio De Janeiro 2016 Olympic team.
Her coach, who witnessed the accident, told Ynet the ATV driver "wanted to run us over, one by one. I really hope Tigist will at the very least be able to walk normally again. It is too soon to tell whether she'll be able to jog again."
The other injured jogger, Radait Balta (19) was released from the hospital on Saturday. "He drove at such a high speed that I never heard him coming," she said.
- Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter
- Receive Ynetnews updates
directly to your desktop
