Gunman opens fire in Miami Beach, claims he saw 'two Palestinians'

WASHINGTON

A man who allegedly fired 17 rounds at a vehicle in Miami Beach, Florida on Saturday night told police he did so because he believed the occupants were Palestinian, according to arrest documents cited by CBS News.

Mordechai Brafman, 27, was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder.

Surveillance footage shows him making a U-turn at 48th Street around 9.30 p.m. (0230GMT Sunday), stopping in front of the victims' vehicle and firing a barrage of bullets with a semiautomatic handgun.

In a police interview, Brafman stated that while he was driving his truck, "he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both," according to the arrest form.

However, both victims survived, with one suffering a gunshot wound to the shoulder and the other grazed on the forearm.

Investigators have not said whether the shooting is being treated as a hate crime.

However, the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Florida) is calling for federal hate crime charges into the incident.

In a statement, CAIR-Florida Communications Director Wilfredo Amr Ruiz said hate crime charges must be brought based on the suspect's statements to police, which apparently indicates "an anti-Palestinian motive.”

"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," said Amr Ruiz.

Brafman remains at the Miami-Dade Corrections’ Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to the Miami Herald.

Citing law enforcement forces, the newspaper also reported that while it remains unknown whether they are Palestinians, the victims were visiting from Israel.