Haifa, Israel – Israeli Police special units broke into an apartment in the northern Israel city of Haifa on Monday where a man barricaded himself after attacking police officers and an elderly couple.
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After a two-hour standoff, police officers repelled into the ground floor apartment and released tear gas, incapacitating the suspect.
They were then able to take him into custody for questioning.
Dozens of police and security personnel, including snipers, canine handlers and special forces officers surrounded the ground floor apartment while negotiators tried to convince the suspect to grant them access.
The incident began when the suspect, a man in his thirties, attacked two police officers responding to reports that a man was behaving erratically near a Haifa hospital. When the police officers approached the suspect, he attacked them with a hand saw, badly injuring one of them. One of the officers fired warning shots in the air, causing the suspect to flee.
The man was able to gain access to the home of an elderly couple and badly injured the husband. The couple, reportedly in their eighties, were rushed to hospital, the wife having suffered minor bruises.
Police arrived on the scene a short while later and began negotiating with the suspect while preparing for the breach.
According to a family member of the victims, the man was know to authorities after they issued complaints that he was squatting in a vacant apartment in the building and that they had even issued a restraining order against him after he threatened them on several occasions.
