The complainant stated that he had known the defendant several years earlier, and that the defendant had indeed confirmed their prior acquaintance. In case law, it has been determined more than once that prior acquaintance between the identifying witness and the defendant reduces the chance of mistaken identification. We are therefore dealing with a situation that is closer to "voting" and not with "ordinary" identification, or "spontaneous" identification. In these circumstances of many years of prior acquaintance, which is not in dispute, it was not necessary to conduct an identification lineup. The acquaintance between the two was not faint or casual, given the many details that the complainant knew about the defendant, his family and his place of residence; and his version, which was supported by the evidence, according to which he himself contributed to the defendant's financial trouble due to being a "monkey" in the companies, for which the defendant even filed a complaint with the police.
The complainant demonstrated confidence with a high level of certainty that the shooter was the defendant. In his statement, the complainant did not qualify himself and did not express any doubt as to whether he was a similar person or a different person. The complainant persisted in pointing steadily and confidently at the defendant as the one who shot him throughout his interrogation.
The complainant stated that the defendant's ethnic origin was from Ethiopia, and he knew how to say that he had a beard like the policeman's, when it came to a "French beard," and the details of his clothing: black pants and a shirt, gloves and a helmet. All of these details are consistent with what was observed in the video footage from the scene of the incident, as presented to the court. With regard to the helmet worn by the shooter, which on the face of it could have prevented the complainant from identifying who it was, the complainant clarified twice that it was a full helmet, but its goggles were missing. In this context, it should be noted that a report on the seizure of exhibits, conducted by Policeman Shimon Elad Balalo, dated July 20, 2022, revealed that "a full face helmet without black glasses with the inscription was seized AGV ...". In addition, photographs of the helmet, the circumstances of which I will discuss later, show that the more glasses it has, the more it was lifted inwards, so that most of the face of the person who wears this helmet is visible (P/43).