"It's a terrible tragedy": Adv. Ofer Bartal on the case of Shay Blum, who shot his adopted son to death

In an interview with the "Maariv" podcast, Adv. Ofer Bartal recounts the inconceivable circumstances of the Blum family: from the vow the father made in his childhood to save abandoned children, through the late discovery of fetal alcohol syndrome, to the moment when the father, "like a trembling leaf," was forced to stand against his son who was holding a knife. "There were five requirements for self-defense, he simply fired too many shots."

The case of Shay Blum, the father who shot his adopted son Omri (of blessed memory) during a walk in a grove, is one of the most difficult tragedies to make headlines recently. The case, which sparked public outrage and began with a serious charge of murder, ended eventually in a conviction for the offense of causing death with diminished responsibility.

In an open conversation with legal correspondent Gilad Morag, Adv. Ofer Bartal breaks down the evidence, explains why this case was "on the verge of self-defense," and reveals the daily struggle of parents against a child who had become a "ticking bomb."

"I will provide some background. Shay Blum was initially charged with the murder of his son Omri, by shooting, in a grove. He shot him nine times, if I am not mistaken, and after he was on the ground, he even stabbed him. He stabbed him after he had already passed away. He said this in the first call to the 100 emergency service, so it is recorded, all the calls to 100, and he already said then, 'I stabbed him after his death.' And he stabbed him with a knife he had bought for another son. That is to say, Omri (of blessed memory) took the knife that the father had bought for another son, took it out of the place where it was, and wanted to stab Shay with this knife."

How did this case actually end in a plea bargain of ten years in prison? "This case ended first of all with a different offense, the offense of causing death in a state of diminished responsibility, because there is a very close proximity to self-defense. That is to say, it is on the verge of self-defense. One must enlighten the listeners: there are six legal requirements for the existence of self-defense, five requirements were met out of the six.

"That is to say, he was threatened, he thought they were about to kill him and stab him with the knife, he approached him, even after he drew the pistol, he continued to approach him in order to stab him, and only then did he shoot, except that he fired too many shots. Not proportional, said the judge."

Why did they adopt the child? "It's a crazy story. When Shay was a young boy, his mother would bring once every few weeks a child from one of the institutions where she worked, of children without families, and he saw how at the end of every such weekend the children would cry and it was very hard for them to leave the home of a normal family and return to the institution. And he made a vow: when I have a relationship I will adopt a child and I will save such a child from this cruel fate. After they had two daughters of their own, the Blum couple decided to adopt the child. They adopted him when he was 14 months old."

What did they know about the child at that time? "What they were told about him was that his mother was addicted to drugs and the baby was born addicted. Galia, the wife, who is a professor of chemistry, checked and saw that it was not terrible, the child is weaned and everything is fine. But what they did not know was that the child suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. When a woman drinks a lot of alcohol during pregnancy, a child is born with this syndrome, and it is a terrible and awful syndrome. 60 percent of these children end up in violent crimes, die, commit suicide. The fate that such children have is terrible.

"They did not know this. Only at age six, after he had already headbutted his kindergarten teacher in the face and broken her teeth and after he tried to burn his house several times, they understood. It was a very difficult and terrible childhood, and yet they took care of him all the time."

What led to the explosion specifically that week in the grove? "The weeks before the event were very stormy. Omri ran away twice from the institution where he was, he threatened the father that he would settle the score with him. The father took it very seriously and a week before the event he complained about him to the police. Omri was 23 years old, he was big, strong.

"The father had meanwhile fallen ill with a certain autoimmune disease that causes brain damage, and he was much weaker, with a very low weight, actually like a trembling leaf. In that week that Omri ran away he was without medication, and this caused him to eventually think about stabbing his father and his father shot him.

"One must understand, there is an expert opinion from the last week of Omri's life, that said about him that he was a ticking bomb. They were very afraid of Omri and of what he could have done."

How did the State Attorney's Office agree to only ten years in prison in such a case? "It took a lot of time. We have been with this case for three years, with very many meetings with the State Attorney's Office, and we submitted expert opinions from various professors. Shay is a person who wanted to do only good, and therefore we are filing these days a request for a pardon to the President of the State. Shay was also ten months in actual detention, and since then for two years he has been under house arrest. We very much hope that we will succeed in preventing him from entering the prison again, because the story is one of a kind."

The full interview with Adv. Ofer Bartal is waiting for you now on the "Maariv" podcast.