From the Times of Israel -
Jewish Florida man arrested after shooting 2 Israelis he thought were Palestinians
By Zev Stub and ToI Staff 17 February 2025, 2:15 pm
A Jewish man in Miami Beach was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts of attempted murder, a day after opening fire at a car in which he said he saw “two Palestinians” inside. However, police said that the victims were actually two Jewish Israelis visiting the US. The victims, Ari Rabey and his father, initially thought they were being targeted in an antisemitic attack..
Mordechai Brafman, 27, was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after he shot at the car 17 times with a semiautomatic handgun on Saturday. Police said there was no altercation between Brafman and the two victims before the shooting, which they described as unprovoked, reports said. According to the arrest sheet, Brafman said that while he was driving his truck, “he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.” Neither victim was killed. One was hit in the left shoulder, while the other was grazed by a bullet.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for Brafman to be charged with a hate crime, which would increase the severity of his offenses. Brafman, who is married, gave his occupation as plumber, reports said. A year ago he was interviewed by local media after vandalism to a bagel store on Miami Beach that had displayed an Israeli flag, Hebrew media reported. At the time Brafman called for more unity and less conflict between people.
Ari Rabey, who was hit in the shoulder, later posted to his Facebook page about the shooting. “Dear Jews,” he began and then explained that he was in Miami with his father. “They tried to kill us for nationalistic reasons,” he wrote. Rabey went on to explain that his father had been wearing a yarmulke on his head when they were driving in the car at the time of the shooting.
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