March 22, 2013

(JTA) — The mayor of Acre, Shimon Lankry, was shot in the chest and moderately wounded by an unknown assailant. 

Lankry, who has led a crackdown on crime in the northern harbor town, was sitting alone in his vehicle on Thursday night near Kfar Yasif in the Western Galilee, Army Radio reported.

A man approached his car while Lankry was waiting for a stop light and fired a single shot into the windshield. 

Hagay Dotan, commander of the coastal region in the Israel Police, said the attempt on Lankry’s life was related to his work as mayor since 2003 and that there have been threats on his life in the past.

Lankry was able to call an ambulance to transport him to hospital in Nahariya, another coastal town. His condition was stable, he was conscious and his life was not in danger, according to the hospital. 

In 2012, Acre police presented data showing a double-digit decline in crime rates in all major offenses compared to the previous year, thanks to a major crackdown on criminal activity in the city.

Robbery cases plummeted by 25 percent in 2012, from 36 cases the previous year and burglary was reduced by ten percent, from 76 cases in 2011. 

That decline was part of an overall reduction of 47 percent in crime rates in Acre over the past seven years, according to Akko Net, a local news site.

Acre, an ancient harbor, is known for its mixed Jewish-Arab population and for the poverty in its building projects.

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