A 19-year-old Florida man has been arrested after authorities say he targeted two Jewish pedestrians by spraying them with an unknown liquid from a water gun in northeast Miami-Dade County, in an incident being investigated as a hate crime.
According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Amir Ayesh, of Plantation, Florida, is expected to face two felony counts of battery with prejudice, a charge that enhances penalties when a crime is motivated by bias against a protected group.
The incidents allegedly occurred on May 9 near Northeast 10th Avenue and 171st Street, an area with a large Jewish population. Investigators said two victims reported that someone in a black vehicle sprayed them with an unknown liquid before driving away.
Detectives later identified Ayesh as the suspect after reviewing surveillance footage from the area, according to local reports.
Authorities obtained an arrest warrant on June 11, and Ayesh was taken into custody on June 18 in Plantation by Broward Sheriff’s deputies with assistance from other law enforcement agencies. He was booked into the Broward County Correctional Center and released the following day, according to jail records.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said Ayesh is expected to be formally charged with two counts of battery with prejudice under Florida’s hate-crime statutes. As of Friday, the charges had not yet appeared in court records in either Miami-Dade or Broward counties.
Florida law allows certain offenses to be elevated to more serious charges when evidence indicates they were motivated by prejudice based on religion, race, ethnicity, or other protected characteristics.
The arrest comes just months after a similar incident in nearby Miami Beach. In February, two South Florida men were arrested after police said they targeted a visibly Jewish man with a water gun in the Mid-Beach area.
According to investigators in that case, at least one suspect shouted anti-Jewish remarks before spraying the victim with an unknown liquid.
Authorities have not disclosed the nature of the liquid involved in the latest incident, and the investigation remains ongoing.
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