Florida Man Blames Mental Health Crisis for Shooting of Israeli Tourists
The man, Mordechai Brafman, 27, was driving when he stopped his truck and got out to shoot at two people according to a police report. He told the police that he had killed them.
The victims turned out to be Israeli Jewish tourists, neither of whom was seriously wounded, and Mr. Brafman, who is also Jewish, now faces charges on two counts of second-degree attempted murder.
Identity-related violence targeting Muslims and Arabs, as well as Jews, has surged since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel's subsequent decimation of the Gaza Strip, according to advocacy groups.
Dustin Tischler, Mr. Brafman's lawyer, said that his client appeared before a judge on Tuesday morning and was being held in jail, with his next hearing set for Friday. He was denied bond on Monday.
Mr. Tischler said that his client had 'no prior history of violent or hateful behavior' and that he was cooperating with law enforcement. His client acknowledged the seriousness of the charges, he said, but had not been able to control his actions.
'At the time of the incident, Mr. Brafman was experiencing a severe mental health crisis which caused him to be in fear for his life,' the lawyer said in a text message to The New York Times. 'It is believed that his ability to make sound judgments was significantly compromised.'
Mr. Tischler said he and his client were 'committed to working with medical professionals to ensure Mr. Brafman receives appropriate and necessary treatment.'
Local media reported that the victims of the shooting were a father and son who identified themselves as Yaron and Ari Rabi and said they were in Florida for vacation. They told a Miami television station that Mr. Brafman had shot at them multiple times and continued shooting while they drove away to seek help at a nearby condominium building. The son was shot in the shoulder and the father was grazed by a bullet on his forearm.
Antisemitic and Islamophobic speech proliferated across the internet after the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out, and violence related to the war has become relatively common around the world.
In Illinois, a Palestinian American woman was injured and her son was killed by their landlord about 10 days into the fighting in Gaza. Just weeks later, in Vermont, three Palestinian Americans were shot.
In the final months of 2023 in New York, several people were charged with hate crimes, including a woman who threw her cellphone and hot coffee at a man in Brooklyn while making anti-Islamic statements, teenagers who attacked people in a Brooklyn synagogue and a man who stalked and harassed five men wearing skullcaps while making antisemitic statements.
The violence continued into the next year.
In February 2024, a Palestinian American man was stabbed in Texas. Months later in the same state, a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl survived an attempted drowning that was apparently related to her identity. An argument over the war that broke out between a pro-Israel protester and a passerby in Massachusetts in September escalated into a physical struggle that ended with both men charged with crimes.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said that discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians surged after the war began in 2023 and rose by about 70 percent in the first half of 2024 amid heightened tensions stemming from the conflict.
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Sunday called on the state and federal authorities to charge Mr. Brafman with a hate crime, which increases the potential penalties for an offense, based on his stated intentions. The fact that his victims were not of Palestinian descent does not change the nature of the attack, the group said.
'It is the alleged shooter's reportedly bias-motivated actions, not the actual ethnicity of the victims, that should be the determining factor for charges in this disturbing case,' the council said.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Local news media reported on Tuesday that prosecutors had said they would charge Mr. Brafman with a hate crime.
Mr. Tischler did not respond to a request for comment on the hate-crime element of the case. He did, however, express deep relief on the part of Mr. Brafman that the victims were out of the hospital and seemed to be recovering.
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USA Today
35 minutes ago
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CBS News
2 hours ago
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Protesters, who fear further fighting could endanger the 50 hostages believed to remain in Gaza, only about 20 of whom are thought to be alive, chanted: "We don't win a war over the bodies of hostages." Protesters gathered at dozens of points throughout Israel, including outside politicians' homes, military headquarters and on major highways, where they were sprayed with water cannons as they blocked lanes and lit bonfires that cloaked roads in smoke. Some restaurants and theaters were closed in solidarity. Police said they had arrested 32 as part of the nationwide demonstration — one of the fiercest since the uproar over six hostages found dead in Gaza last September. "Military pressure doesn't bring hostages back — it only kills them," former hostage Arbel Yehoud said at a demonstration in Tel Aviv's hostage square. "The only way to bring them back is through a deal, all at once, without games." "Today, we stop everything to save and bring back the hostages and soldiers. 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Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry reported that 47 people were killed and at least 226 were wounded across the territory in the last 24 hours alone. Meanwhile, hospitals and eyewitnesses in Gaza reported at least 17 aid-seekers had been killed by Israeli forces on Sunday, including nine awaiting aid trucks close to the Morag corridor. The death toll among Palestinians waiting for food and other aid in Gaza has climbed this summer, sparking outcry around the world as starvation and malnutrition run rampant in the enclave. Hamza Asfour said he was just north of the corridor, awaiting a convoy, when Israeli snipers fired, first to disperse the crowds, then from tanks hundreds of meters away. He saw two people with gunshot wounds — one in the chest and other in the shoulder. "It's either to take this risk or wait and see my family die of starvation," he said. "There is no other option." 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The total number of deaths related to starvation has risen to 251, including 110 children, said the health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own. While demonstrators in Israel demanded a ceasefire, Israel began preparing for an invasion of Gaza City and other populated parts of the besieged strip, aimed at destroying Hamas. The military body that coordinates its humanitarian aid to Gaza said Sunday that the supply of tents to the territory would resume. COGAT said it would allow the United Nations to resume importing tents and shelter equipment into Gaza ahead of plans to forcibly evacuate people from combat zones "for their protection." The majority of assistance has been blocked from entering Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade in March after a ceasefire collapsed when Israel restarted its offensive. Deliveries have since partially resumed, though aid organizations say the flow is far below what is needed. Some have accused Israel of "weaponizing aid" through blockades and rules they say turn humanitarian assistance into a tool of its political and military goals. Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's capital on Sunday, escalating strikes on Iran-backed Houthis, who, since the war began, have fired missiles at Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea. Both the IDF and a Houthi-run television station in Yemen announced the strikes. Al-Masirah Television said they targeted a power plant in the southern district of Sanhan, sparking a fire and knocking it out of service, the Yemeni station said. Israel's military said Sunday's strikes targeted energy infrastructure it claimed was being used by the Houthis, and were launched in response to missiles and drones aimed at Israel. While some projectiles have breached its missile defenses — notably during its 12-day war with Iran in June — Israel has intercepted the vast majority of missiles launched from Yemen. The U.S. Department of State on Saturday announced that it would stop issuing visitor visas for people from Gaza. "All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days," the department wrote in a social media post. Some humanitarian groups have condemned the pause because those visas may be issued to people in need of medical treatment abroad, CBS News partner BBC News reported. The nonprofit organization Palestine Children's Relief Fund said in a statement to BBC News that the decision "will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment."
