Police Arrest Man Accused of Running Jewish Congressman Off Road While Waving Palestinian Flag, Making Threats

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Police in Rocky River, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, announced on Friday they had arrested a man accused of running Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) off the road and making antisemitic threats.

Miller, a former aide to President Donald Trump and one of four Jewish Republicans in the House, posted a video on social media Thursday about the incident.

According to Miller, a “deranged man” ran him off the road, threatened him and his family, waved a Palestinian flag, and made antisemitic comments. He called 911 and made reports with both the local Rocky River Police Department and U.S. Capitol Police, who have national jurisdiction to protect members of Congress and their families. During the 911 call, he was able to identify the man’s license plate number and held up the phone for the 911 dispatcher to hear the honking and yelling from the man’s car.

A partial clip of Miller’s 911 call is below, posted by The Forward.

“I was just driving to work, and I was cut off by a man in a Tesla who held up a Palestinian flag to me, and then rolled down his window and said that ‘I’m going to cut your throat and your daughter’s,’” said Miller to the 911 dispatcher. “And he said, ‘You’re a dirty Jew. I’m going to fucking kill you all, and I know who you are and where you live.’”

“I am a little shaken, to be quite honest,” Miller added. “I have a weapon on me. I’m glad I didn’t use it.”

Both Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders have condemned the incident, especially in the aftermath of the horrifying shootings of two Minnesota state legislators and their spouses, which killed two and left two seriously wounded.

NBC News senior national political reporter Henry J. Gomez reported that Miller had signed a criminal complaint for aggravated menacing, the police had investigated, and an arrest warrant was issued for Feras S. Hamdan of Westlake, Ohio.

Hamdan voluntarily turned himself in to the RRPD and was taken into custody.

Photo via Rocky River Police Department.

Fox 8 Cleveland reported that Hamdan, age 36, was initially charged with “a misdemeanor count of aggravated menacing.”

His arraignment was held Friday afternoon, and Rocky River Municipal Court Judge Joseph Burke set Hamdan’s bond at $500,000, as well as adding an additional misdemeanor charge, menacing with an ethnic intimidation specification.

During the hearing, Burke mentioned the Minnesota shootings, which authorities have said were politically motivated.

“Threats against elected officials — I’m just not gonna tolerate that,” said the judge. “These are real serious allegations here. It’s not gonna happen on my watch. Someone’s gonna get harmed.”

If Hamdan posts bail, he will have to surrender his passport and be under GPS monitoring, Burke ordered. Hamdan also consented to the no-contact protection order Miller requested, covering the congressman and his family.

According to The Forward, Hamdan appears to be a doctor, with the above mugshot photo matching one on a LinkedIn photo for a Feras Hamdan who graduated from Cleveland State University and then got his medical degree in 2017 from Medical University of the Americas, on the Caribbean island of Nevis.

That LinkedIn profile lists him as working for multiple medical jobs in the Cleveland area. The Forward also dug up several online reviews for Hamdan — some that praised him as “[p]rofessional and courteous” and others that bashed him as a “waste of time” the patient would not choose to see again.

Hamdan’s LinkedIn page and other online professional profiles seem to have been taken down. The Forward also reported on some past litigation involving Hamdan:

Hamdan was sued in 2023 by a man who claimed that Hamdan “negligently operated his vehicle” and caused a crash by failing to yield. The case was settled last July but the terms were not disclosed in court records.

Hamdan has an ongoing lawsuit against a construction company that he claims he hired to help with the “build-out” of a business property but Hamdan says the company failed to “complete the work within the agreed-to timeframe.”

The company did not appear to respond to the lawsuit and a hearing for default judgement was held on Wednesday, the results of which are not clear from court records.