This is one of those moments Israel‘s most dangerous criminals were shot dead outside a petrol station at point-blank range.
CCTV footage shows the suspect walking towards the entrance of the building wearing a gray hoodie, black cargo pants and a white baseball cap with his hands in his pockets.
As he heads to the front door, three men – including mafia boss Yanis Yushvaev – leave the building.
As they leave the gas station, the unknown assassin turns and pulls a gun from the pocket of his hoodie before shooting Yushvaev in the back of the head at close range.
The two other men cower in panic as the gunman runs from the scene in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv in Israel, on Sunday.
According to social media reports, the killer used “a hyper-realistic ‘second skin’ type silicone mask” to conceal his identity.
He then “fled the scene in a getaway car, which was found abandoned about ten minutes later and set on fire in a nearby town.”
Yushvaev, 40, was the head of a crime group with ties to the Jewish community in the Caucasus, Israeli police said.
This image shows the seconds before the gunman opened fire on mafia boss Yanis Yushvaev, 40, a short distance outside a gas station in Israel on Sunday.
Yushvaev had been arrested several times in the past on suspicion of violent crimes, including shootings and grenade attacks
Local media report that the mafia boss was well known to the police and had been arrested several times in the past on suspicion of violent crimes – including shootings, grenade attacks and car arson – but that he was never convicted.
In February, he was arrested at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport after a trip to Moscow, but was released days later due to insufficient evidence.
And in November last year, a police spokesman said Yushvaev was the boss of “a criminal gang involved in blood feuds” during a court hearing following a police request to extend his detention on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a crime.
The 40-year-old was reportedly taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead.
Yushvaev “had no pulse, was not breathing and suffered significant injuries,” the Israeli ambulance service said.
Police, who said the killing was criminally motivated, launched a manhunt for the suspect after he escaped.
Officers set up roadblocks and deployed a helicopter to search for the shooter.
In addition to his criminal empire, Yushvaev was a restaurant owner in Or Akiva and described himself last year as a “legitimate businessman” who was “very well established.”
In an interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, he said he “drives a Bentley, and that bothers the police.”
At the time, an Israeli police source told the TV channel that it is “difficult to convict Yushvaev” because he “almost never talks on the phone” and had the “full loyalty” of his accomplices, who would not give him up during the police interrogation.
