Israeli soldier shoots dead unarmed autistic Palestinian Iyad Halak

Israeli police have shot dead unarmed autistic Palestinian man Iyad Halak in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Iyad Halak’s mother Rana holds with a photo of her son. Picture: AP

Israeli police have shot dead an unarmed autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City after saying they suspected he was carrying a weapon.

The shooting drew broad condemnations and revived complaints alleging excessive force by Israeli security forces.

Relatives identified the man as Iyad Halak, 32. They said he suffered from autism and was heading to the school for students with special needs where he studied each day when he was shot on Saturday.

“They killed him in cold blood,” Halak’s mother, Rana, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV.

Israeli police said they spotted a suspect “with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol”. When he failed to obey orders to stop, ­officers opened fire. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said no weapon was found.

Channel 12 said members of Israel’s paramilitary border police force fired at Mr Halak’s legs and chased him into a dead-end alley. It said a senior officer ordered a halt in fire as they entered the alley, but that a second officer did not listen and fired six or seven bullets from an M-16 rifle, killing Mr Halak. Both officers were taken into custody and questioned for several hours.

Mr Halak’s father, Kheiri, said police raided the family’s home after the shooting. “They found nothing,” he said.

Lone Palestinian attackers with no clear links to armed groups have carried out a series of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks in recent years.

AP