Chief Inspector Sergey Dyachuk, an intelligence officer at the Ofakim Police Station, was commander of the night shift, which was assigned to guard the Nova Festival at Re’im. When rocket fire began, the decision was to disperse the festival; but then gunshot victims began arriving, wounded by indiscriminate gunfire, and it became clear that terrorists had invaded. Over the police radio, he asked for a helicopter and reinforcements, but help never came. Under massive fire, and while still trying to escape the terrorists’ bullets himself, he directed some of the party’s fleeing participants toward a relatively safe direction and led others toward cars that took them to Moshav Patish. At the Nova Festival, 15 police officers were killed along with 364 partygoers.
