One of the teenagers suspected of involvement in the killing of pizzeria employee Yemanu Binyamin Zelka on Independence Day admitted to police that the 21-year-old victim was “just trying to defend himself” as he was beaten and stabbed, Channel 12 reported Monday.

Zelka, a Pizza Hut employee in Petah Tikva, was stabbed to death on the night of the holiday in an attack by a group of adolescents after he told them not to spray party foam in the restaurant.

The youths waited outside for Zelka to finish his late-night shift, ambushed and beat him, with at least one assailant taking out a knife and stabbing him. He died of his wounds a day later.

According to a partial transcript from the interrogation, published by Channel 12, a police interrogator asked the suspect what he was seen doing in surveillance footage documenting the stabbing in Petah Tikva.

“You are beating him, and he is already lying on the ground. What is he doing at this moment?” the interrogator asked. The suspect responded: “He was just trying to defend himself.”

The interrogator continued: “I don’t get it. Why are you continuing to hit him when he is already completely helpless, on the ground and unable to hurt anybody?”

The youth retorted: “What should I do? Should I hit him and stop midway through? Everyone was hitting [him], what, should I stop?”

The interrogator pressed: “How long did you plan to beat him for? Until he died? You understand that’s what........

© The Times of Israel