The State Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday filed an indictment with the Haifa District Court against 43-year-old Samid G’aja of Ara, accusing him of reckless murder in the death of his 9-year-old daughter, Lila. The shooting happened about a month after he fired into the yard of his home in the Wadi Ara community during a family dispute that began after a quarrel between children, and one of the bullets struck his daughter.
According to the indictment, submitted by attorney Yossi Gimpl of the Haifa District Prosecutor’s Office, about two weeks before the fatal incident G’aja went to his brother’s home armed with a pistol after an argument between his son and his brother. He threatened his brother and fired several shots into the air in a residential area. The indictment also charges him with weapons offenses, firing in a residential area, threats, and obstructing justice.
On the day of the killing, another argument broke out between G’aja and his relatives after his sister criticized his son’s behavior following a children’s fight. When family members failed to calm the situation, G’aja went into his house, took a pistol he was illegally holding, and fired at least eight shots from inside the house toward a stone wall with a window facing the yard, while relatives stood outside.
One bullet hit Lila in the head as she was in the yard. She was evacuated to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly afterward. In its detention request until the end of proceedings, the prosecution said G’aja poses an extremely high danger because he used a firearm to solve routine family disputes, endangering those around him, and argued that the disappearance of the pistol and the risk of witness tampering, especially since many witnesses are family members, justify keeping him in custody.
