Victims reportedly posted \u2018death to Arabs\u2019 on social media after shooting while suspect held on attempted murder charges<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Jewish man in Miami Beach is facing charges of attempted murder following accusations that he opened fire on two men he believed were Palestinians but reportedly turned out to be Israeli visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to arrest documents, at 9.30pm on Saturday surveillance video appeared to show Mordechai Brafman, 27, getting out of his truck and opening fire with a semiautomatic handgun at a vehicle as it passed. Brafman allegedly fired 17 times, striking one victim in the left shoulder and grazing the other\u2019s left forearm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in custody, Brafman spontaneously told detectives that while he was driving his truck, \u201che saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both\u201d, arrest documents said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Law enforcement officials did not confirm if the victims were in fact Palestinians and the Miami Herald<\/a> reported that they were actually two vacationing Israelis, naming them as Ari Rabey and his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Facebook posts after the shooting show Rabey at Miami\u2019s Jackson memorial hospital and his Hyundai with several bullet holes and markings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The outlet reported that as of Monday afternoon, Brafman, the alleged shooter, was being held at the Miami-Dade correctional center on two counts of attempted second-degree murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further complicating the incident, one of the injured men reportedly posted \u201cdeath to the Arabs\u201d in a message on social media after the shooting. \u201cMy father and I went through a murder attempt against antisemitic background,\u201d he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Council on American-Islamic Relations\u2019 Florida<\/a> chapter has called for federal hate crime charges in the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is deeply ironic and telling that both the alleged pro-Israel perpetrator and the pro-Israel victim in the Miami Beach shooting reportedly hold racist anti-Palestinian views,\u201d said Cair\u2019s national executive director, Nihad Awad, on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis just the latest example of the hate targeting the Palestinian-American community in this country and Palestinians in their homeland. Policymakers in our nation should stop fomenting the anti-Palestinian hate that led to the genocide in Gaza and to hate crimes in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n