According to Miami Beach Police, a Florida man is expected to face two felony charges of attempted murder for allegedly shooting and injuring two men he believed to be "Palestinian." This incident underscores the alarming rise of hate-motivated crimes.
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02-20, 2025Miami Beach Police Department spokesperson Officer Christopher Bess told CNN that the victims were Israeli tourists. According to a police affidavit, Mordechai Brafman, 27, was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida, on Saturday night for allegedly firing 17 shots at the victims' car, wounding the driver and a passenger.
The affidavit stated: "Of note, while in custody, the defendant spontaneously stated in our interview room that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot at them." This shooting in Miami Beach comes at a time of heightened tensions, as Arab nations attempt to formulate post-war plans for Gaza following a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The global implications of such incidents cannot be ignored.
Both victims survived. Police records indicate that one victim was shot in the left shoulder, and the other sustained a graze wound to the left forearm. CNN has contacted the Israeli Consulate in Miami for comment. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida chapter has called for hate crime charges to be filed against Brafman, citing his "reportedly admitted anti-Palestinian motive to police."
“What should be the determining factor in the charges in this disturbing case is that the alleged shooter was motivated by bias, not the actual ethnicity of the victims,” said Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, CAIR-Florida’s communications director, in a statement. Last year, CAIR condemned a rise in anti-Muslim hate, noting in a report that the organization received over 8,000 complaints in 2023, most of which came after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 – the highest number recorded in the organization’s 30-year history.
Surveillance video after the shooting showed the two victims speeding into a driveway before jumping out of the car and frantically banging on the door of what appeared to be an apartment building. One of the victims, Ari Rewai, told CNN affiliate WSVN via a Hebrew translator that he and his son were in the car when another driver "randomly started shooting." Rewai told the station: "He put down the window, the driver's window, and he just started spraying (us)." He added that he felt grateful to be alive. "God, life is a gift," he said.
