Palestinian shot dead after tractor rampage

updated 1:43 p.m. ET July 22, 2008

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian man from east Jerusalem rammed a construction vehicle into three cars and a city bus in downtown Jerusalem on Tuesday, wounding four people before he was shot dead, in a chilling imitation of another attack in the city earlier this month.

The driver went on his rampage in a busy part of downtown Jerusalem, several hundred yards from the luxury hotel where U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is to stay Tuesday night as he kicks off a visit to Israel.

Police said a civilian driving nearby saw what was happening, jumped out of his car and shot the driver. A border policeman who rushed to the scene also shot the driver. Police sealed off possible escape routes into predominantly Arab east Jerusalem and were searching for two suspects who fled the scene, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The rampage turned the area into a scene of panic and chaos before the driver was killed, minutes after he launched his attack.

The driver of the bus said he was chased by the assailant, who raised the shovel of his front-end loader.

"I was driving on the main road when the (construction vehicle) hit me in the rear, on the right hand side," driver Avi Levi said.

"After I passed him he turned round, made a U-turn and rammed the windows twice with the shovel. The third time he aimed for my head, he came up to my window and I swerved to the right, otherwise I would have gone to meet my maker," Levi said.

'He just kept ramming'
Witness Moshe Shimshi said the driver of the construction vehicle, who was wearing a large, white skullcap commonly worn by religious Muslims, slammed into the side of the bus, then sped away and went for a car.

"He didn't yell anything, he just kept ramming into cars," Shimshi said.

The driver then headed for cars waiting at a red light "and rammed into them with all his might," he added.

Shimshi said he stopped his motorcycle and ran toward the construction vehicle when he saw another man running at it from another direction.

The man, a civilian, began firing a pistol "two or three meters from the bulldozer, which was moving back and forth ramming into the cars the whole time," Shimshi added. "After a few shots, I saw the driver shake and fall, and then he didn't move any more."

Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said a border police officer then arrived and shot at the driver "to make sure he was killed." In the attack earlier this month, the driver of the construction vehicle was shot and presumed dead — only to revive and carry on with his attack before being shot dead.

Channel 10 TV said a mother and her baby were wounded in the assault. Israeli rescue services said they had evacuated one person whose leg was partially severed; Israel media said he was in the car that was overturned.

"This was another attempt to murder innocent people in a senseless act of terrorism," said government spokesman Mark Regev. "All people who believe in peace and reconciliation must unequivocally condemn this attack. Unfortunately, it is clear that we as a society will have to remain vigilant against terrorism."

Minutes after the attack, the driver, wearing shorts and black shoes, was sprawled backward in the construction vehicle's cabin, his legs dangling lifelessly. At least 20 bullet hotels pierced the front-end loader.

Fire trucks massed at the scene, where the smell of gas — possibly from a punctured gas tank — wafted. Sirens wailed in the background, and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

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