Miami Beach Man Charged with Attempted Murder After Mistakenly Shooting Israeli Tourists
A Jewish man in Miami Beach is facing attempted murder charges after allegedly opening fire on two men he believed were Palestinians—who were later identified as Israeli visitors.
According to arrest documents, Mordechai Brafman, 27, was captured on surveillance video around 9:30 p.m. Saturday exiting his truck and firing 17 rounds from a semiautomatic handgun at a passing vehicle. One victim was struck in the left shoulder, while the other sustained a graze wound to his forearm.
While in custody, Brafman reportedly told detectives he believed he had “shot and killed two Palestinians.” However, the Miami Herald identified the victims as Ari Rabey and his father, both Israeli tourists. Facebook posts showed Rabey recovering at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital and his bullet-riddled vehicle.
Brafman remains in custody at the Miami-Dade Correctional Center on two counts of attempted second-degree murder.
The incident has sparked further controversy, as one of the victims allegedly posted "death to the Arabs" on social media afterward, describing the attack as an anti-Semitic hate crime.
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called for federal hate crime charges. CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, criticized the incident, stating, “This is just the latest example of the hate targeting the Palestinian-American community in this country and Palestinians in their homeland.”
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