This is a huge problem in the heimishe communities too and it should be addressed in shuls!
The senseless murder of Yuri Volkov, a 52-year-old healthcare aide at Ichilov hospital, during a road rage incident caught live on camera Wednesday evening, has shocked Israel to the core. Volkov’s murderer, 22-year-old Adi Mizrachi, was apprehended by police Friday and confessed to the murder, which he said he “would be sorry for for the rest of my life.”
Volkov was stabbed to death in Holon on Wednesday evening after getting into an argument with a motorized scooter driver while crossing the road.
Holding a picture of her husband while her son hugged her, Lena Volkov, Yuri’s widow who had been with him at the time of the stabbing, described the incident.
“We were crossing the road. We had a green light and he [the driver] had a red light. We told him it was not okay, that he was doing something wrong… that’s why he killed him,” she said in a video shared by Ichilov Hospital, where she and Yuri worked.
In dashcam footage of the incident taken from a nearby car, Lena can be seen crossing the street while the crosswalk light appears to be green. The man on the moped attempts to cut her off as she crosses, whereupon Yuri Volkov begins a verbal argument.
The suspect then appears to swipe at Volkov with something in response, then quickly drives away. Volkov walks off the road and appears to talk to his wife for a bit, before dropping to the ground.
Lena said that the attacker seemed suspicious to her from the first moment.
“I looked at him and knew that something was wrong, there was something about him,” she said in tears.
She thanked friends and family for their support, “including Yuri’s department… he gave everything for his patients, I know that,” she said.
According to a relative cited by Channel 12 news, Lena had taken a picture of the attacker after he made an illegal turn and almost hit her.
“She managed to take a picture of the man who almost ran into her. He noticed that and told her ‘give me your phone.’ Her husband replied by saying, ‘keep driving, it’s fine.’ At that moment he stabbed him in the heart. He told Lena he wasn’t feeling well and dropped to the ground,” the unnamed relative told the network.
Coworkers described Yuri as a “sensitive and humble” person who was always trying to help others.
“Yuri worked at the hospital’s emergency room for nearly 20 years, helping nurses… He really was one of the most humane people one can imagine,” coworker Shira Peleg said.
“We’re heartbroken. It’s hard to believe that a person who was supposed to come in in two or three hours and treat others just died all of the sudden. Such an unnecessary death of a person with a family, children, grandchildren, and to think that it happened next to his wife. How could a person just cross the road and die?”” she added.
“This was a senseless death,” a police officer cited by Channel 12 said. “We have become a very violent society. People kill each other because of a remark. We’re looking for the attacker and we’ll find them.”
Volkov is survived by his wife, three children and a granddaughter.
At Volkov’s funeral incoming National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir pledged to fight the growing violence on the roads, stating that “the dagger which stabbed Yuri stabbed through the heart of all of us. We will do all we can to eradicate road rage. I came here to strengthen the family and to stress that I will do all I can to prevent such acts happening on the roads.”
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