Original subtitles

EVENING NEWS

A horrific murder took place last night in Ein Kerem neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Parents and both their daughters were shot dead last night in their sleep.

The murder is attributed to their son, a fourteen-year-old boy.

According to the police, the boy, who was apprehended, is the only suspect.

Our police reporter, Uri Cohen Aharonov, was told

that during his interrogation the boy confessed to the crime.

The investigation revealed that the boy took an M-16 rifle

that was in the possession of his father, who was on military reserve duty,

and shot his family at close range as they slept.

Our police reporter added that the motive was still unknown,

but the police are inclined to assume that the boy shot his family on impulse.

The father, Nissim Cohen, who was 44 years old

and worked as a municipal supervisor, died at the scene.

The mother, Leah Cohen, who was 40, died on the way to the hospital.

The older sister, Anat, was 19 years old serving her mandatory military duty,

and the younger sister, Shira, 18, was a twelfth-grade student.

Due to disputes

between the broadcasting and the engineering committee,

we are unfortunately unable to bring you a televised item on this story.

They took him to the prison,

and the next morning, I met him.

I remember a boy.

A boy, scrawny, little.

A smooth face.

Stone-cold. Sitting there, talking. A kid.

You can't be mad at him, he's a kid.

You can't even get mad at him, say something like,

"You piece of… don't know what, how could you do that?"

You can't get mad at him. A kid!

I got him a cup of coffee.

I put the coffee on the table,

I thought he'd be nervous, annoyed, he'd throw it, something.

I put the cup of coffee on the table and left the room and came back.

He said, "Samuel, sit down." Like that, with his hand, he said, "Sit down."

"Tell me, do you think I'm a kid?"

He's thirteen and a half. I ask him, "Why?"

He said, "You put that cup."

"Do you want me to get mad and knock it over? Come on…"

"Your prompt and investigation were good." He was grading me.

To the extent that when other people asked questions,

he told me, "Do they want to show that they know better than you?"

"You asked me already."

The guy is focused the whole time.

No excitement, no emotional turmoil, Nothing, not a thing.

Was he like that from the first moment you met him?

This is not someone who has killed four people.

Especially not family members.

If someone had seen him and I told them that,

they would've put me in a mental institution.

We took his testimony, under caution,

told him he was suspected of killing his family.

He realized the implications of everything and told us, in the coldest of ways.

Without any pain, without sorrow, not a tear,

for his father, his mother, his sisters, about what happened.

The investigator asked him, "Do you feel guilty?"

He said, "Why would I feel guilty?

I didn't murder them."

"I didn't murder them, people, listen."

He tried to convince us.

And we said the opposite, "You did murder them."

He said, "I didn't murder them."

"I was a tool, I was used. That foreign body."

Who used him?

A foreign body. He says something got into him.

I was in a total daze during the funeral.

I was crazed.

All I remember is the people, and the shooting,

And lots of hugs all around.

And I felt like no one could help me process that loss. That's the truth.

I felt it was too much for me, I had no tools, no wisdom.

That the only person that could've helped me was her.

Only Shira could be by my side during such a horrible loss

and say wise things.

Only she could have said something wise at this time.

And…

I saw her at the funeral.

And she hugged me, I could really see her through all the pain and grief,

she cried and she hugged me, and told me,

"I know it hurts."

"I know it hurts."

He was in love with me,

and he had another friend.

A very good friend, and they'd write me poems.

I'd come home and find in my pencil case, notes with poems

and little rhymes, the sweetest and most innocent things.

So I can really remember the little things that showed personal attention.

There was something very innocent about him, very tender.

He was a very polite child.

Really.

He was polite and well-mannered.

Liked by adults and by children, too.

He wasn't a nerd, he was a very good student,

but he had a great sense of humor.

Also, he was pleasant to just talk to in general, and he was funny.

When you realized it was actually him…

that he did it, what did you think?

What went through your mind?

The camera can't show it, but my hairs are all standing on end.

We have experience. I sat with more experienced investigators,

we checked the scene, the people, the background,

we checked the family, caregivers,

social workers, and the schools, and…

We tried to find a motive, a cause,

a normal reason that we're used to seeing in such crimes. Nothing, zero, nada.

He would always say things like, "It wasn't me, not me," and his behavior,

everything showed that he had no reason, no motive to kill this family.

On the contrary, they were all good to him,

everyone hugged him, he was their baby.

In truth, I gave up on this case.

I said, that's it, I don't understand.

I'd had it.

We would collect the facts,

create a story, do everything, but here… nothing.

We had him saying "Yes, I did it, but it wasn't me."

Maybe the only person who accompanied him

since then and to this day.

-Yes. -Right.

Yes.

You're a little bit like a father to him.

Not his father, if I were I'd be dead.

But our relationship is like you'd expect.

What can I do? It's the truth.

You probably heard about the murder before you got the case.

Yes. Everyone heard.

It was in all the newspapers, it was very well-known.

I heard about it…

A few short days later, the uncles came to me.

They asked if I'd be willing to take it. I said, "Yes, but on condition

that I represent the young man and not you."

They didn't understand why. I already knew why.

I had a long-term plan on that issue.

And I started representing him.

Taking his case meant going to him,

so he could meet me and confirm that I--

So, I went to see him in jail.

I saw a charming young man.

A very intelligent young man.

A young man who'd studied.

A very interesting young man.

I came home and my wife asked, "Well, how was it?"

I said, "Frightening."

Because that boy could have been one of our boys.

Maybe you clicked with him

because he resembled your son?

No, he's an incredible young man.

So that's how the relationship formed.

I like incredible people.

After the police left…

they cleared the house

and they had to get the beds out.

They needed a hammer, so I went home and got a hammer and went inside.

With the hammer.

And I went upstairs to see everything that happened.

In Shira and Anat's room.

And I saw everything.

I saw and knew exactly what had happened there.

I knew exactly where they were when he shot them

from the holes in the wall.

And…

I think I shouldn't have entered, actually.

Tell me, the first time he stood before a judge,

-it was the day after the murder, right? -Yes.

He stood in front of the juvenile judge, Ben-Hador.

Ben-Hador, right.

And asked him for, do you know what?

-Yes. -What?

A gag order.

-What? -No publicity.

-He asked for a gag order. -Yes.

A 14-year-old kid. Tell me about it.

YOUTH CHARGED WITH MURDER: "A VOICE TOLD ME TO"

"I WANT BOOKS AND NOTEBOOKS TO KEEP UP WITH MY STUDIES"

He asked for it. He didn't want it to get out.

The judge didn't give it to him.

That's it.

How did he know about that? I don't know.

A smart kid.

It could be, just a guess, I'm not saying that it happened or not,

because I don't know.

If he planned it all, then he knew to ask for that.

And maybe he didn't plan it, I don't know, I have no idea.

But that explains if he knew.

But people know things even when they don't plan.

Haim, can you tell me what's happening?

The reconstruction was…

the next day.

You filmed and recorded everything?

I filmed it, yes.

Crime scene reconstruction needs preparation to generate confidence,

a feeling of ease.

It's part of the rules of reconstruction so that the result is good.

I explained it to them. Those are the rules.

No pressure, let him speak as easily as you can.

If he takes the microphone and talks without you asking questions, let him.

And he reconstructed the whole case, he explained…

Tell me what he said.

"I took the weapon and the cartridge

from the father's room."

The investigator asked him "How do you know how to use the gun?"

He said his father had taught him

the day he came back on leave from his reserve duty,

he brought the M-16 and he asked him.

Did you want to know why he did it?

Of course. I wanted to know why for the sake of his mental health.

But we never found out.

Nothing?

The same story about who had told him to do it,

some green body or something.

Something completely surreal and unbelievable.

What did he tell you about a green body?

That a green body came to him and told him to do it.

That was the story, more or less.

He heard voices, commands, things like that?

Yes.

-And did you believe that? -No.

Why?

Because it wasn't rational.

I may be many things, but I've never been called an idiot.

So, I didn't believe it.

But I don't believe many of my clients.

I've represented murderers, and I know they murdered,

and they were acquitted. I have no problem with that.

I was downstairs before we went up, before everything was ready.

I took a little break.

It was some effort, after all.

And then I talked to him, I said, "Tell me. I heard that the soldier…

She loved you and you loved her. It was special, right?"

So he goes, "Yes, we had a connection, a lot of love."

"She loved me the most."

So I just nodded my head like this, I nodded and said to him,

"Oh, no," as if to say, "you've lost something great."

The last person he'd have a reason to kill.

Why would he kill her? What did she do to him?

They sat and ate dinner,

they did everything, they went upstairs to sleep.

He had no reason on earth.

He told you that.

-Yes. He told me. -Why would he--

He told me, "My sister, I had no reason in the world to harm her."

He said, "I" as if to hint to me,

"I'm afraid what will happen to me when I start to realize what I've lost."

You see?

He didn't say "what I've taken," "what I've done."

Again. Look, he's clever.

He's clever. He didn't implicate himself.

Then he went upstairs to the two sisters, the soldier first, then the second one.

You told us he said that the last sister he killed, Shira, said something.

Yes, in the reconstruction he said that she turned her face

and she said, "What happened? What is it?"

Why--

Yes, like she said something, and in the middle of her sentence

he put the bullets in her, stopped her.

"So what, you didn't take mercy on her when she woke up?"

So he says, "It wasn't me."

"If it were up to me, it wouldn't have happened."

"It wouldn't have been done."

Some people believe to this day that he also doesn't know.

That he didn't have a motive, that he just suddenly killed?

I don't believe him. I don't believe him.

I know that's what he said. I don't believe him.

You know that this is the whole issue behind this story?

I know, and I have a theory, but I won't tell you.

No. You will tell me!

I won't tell you.

If I knew the motive you're thinking of,

would I be able to understand him?

Yes.

Yes. Truthfully, yes.

After the reconstruction, where did you take him?

To the cemetery.

His expressions…

Were not like, "Wow, what happened?"

"Did I do this?" Anything? Nothing.

Nothing.

We said we'd do some things to see if the person really has no feelings,

or he has feelings and they will burst out if we do some things

to touch his most sensitive spot.

He was taken to the cemetery,

to his parents, to show him his sisters.

He didn't respond. The same thing.

Cold. Withdrawn. Cool.

He spoke quietly, with a calmness that you just can't understand.

Did you ask about his mother, his sisters?

What didn't we ask? I told you, we took him to the grave.

"Here, right here, you're the reason they're here."

"Your sisters are here, you did this, cry, at least cry,

don't tell us why, cry, show some emotion."

Nothing. Like a rock.

He studied at a regular school, then at a gifted school,

and at both, his average grade, I remember, was 13, not 10. That's one.

Two, his first encounter with a policeman

was only a few minutes after he's killed four people.

Not random people. His family.

He tells me, "Say, if you take fingerprints

and compare them with other crime scenes to see if I did this…?"

People, serious criminals I've handled, didn't talk to me that way,

at least not the first time.

And not so calmly and peacefully, like…

like nothing. "Did something happen?

What happened? This cup? I dropped it, and the rug is dirty. So what?"

Talk to him.

Do you have anything to say to the family?

Your sister Shira? Your sister Anat?

Did he say something? I can't hear.

Moti, he said something, I can't hear. What did you say?

If I know why, will I also understand why he has no regrets?

Does it go along with why he doesn't regret it?

It could do.

And it's one, two, three, four…

Or, the first is supposed to shock you.

But no, the second even maybe more, but no. Third and fourth, completely…

-And time goes by until you go upstairs. -And he goes up and down, shoots the bed,

and so planned to shoot.

Look, it was planned. Killing everyone, that's planned.

It wasn't one. It was four.

That's all for now, good night.

Subtitle translation by: Harry Darkins