UK police arrest man suspected of shooting Jewish teen in head with air rifle
Reports say teen was shot outside synagogue in Bournemouth, suffered minor injuries; local rabbi says he was visibly Jewish; police treating incident as hate crime
British police this week arrested a 26-year-old man suspected of shooting a teenage Jewish boy in the head with an air rifle in the city of Bournemouth, in an apparent antisemitic attack, according to reports in UK media.
The attack, which took place in the East Cliff neighborhood of the coastal city, took place on August 23, outside a synagogue in the area.
According to The Telegraph, the victim was shot by a man in a passing car, who shouted obscenities at the teen before firing his weapon.
The teen suffered minor injuries.
Days later, police arrested a man from Ferndown, Dorset, in connection with the shooting, and said they were treating the incident as a hate crime.
According to the report, the man is suspected of assault and possession of an imitation firearm in a public place, and has since been released on bail.
Rabbi Alan Lewis of the Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation told The Telegraph that the teen who was shot is a “religious Jew who was wearing a skull cap,” and that it was “very obvious he was Jewish.”
Dorset Police Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Jenkins said that the police “have been carrying out extensive inquiries as part of our investigation and have now made an arrest in connection with the incident,” adding that she was asking anyone with information about the incident to come forward.
“We understand the concern that this incident has caused to members of the community and we are continuing to liaise with them to provide updates and reassurance. We are also continuing to support and update the victims with the progress of the investigation,” she said.
The shooting occurred on the same day that several swastikas were found spray-painted on homes in the same area, which Rabbi Lewis said had “mezuzah[s] outside so it was obvious that Jewish people lived there.”
The incidents come amid a wave of antisemitic incidents and attacks in the UK. According to a Jewish community watchdog, antisemitism reached near-record levels over the first half of 2025.
According to figures released last month by the Community Security Trust (CST), 1,521 anti-Jewish incidents were recorded in the UK between January and June 2025.
The figure represents a 25-percent drop from the all-time high of 2,019 incidents in the same period in 2024, but it is the second-highest total ever for a six-month period, with more than 200 incidents a month.
Antisemitism has spiked around the world since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, and UK Jews have suffered a sizable portion of it. A recent study by UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism found that only one-third of British Jews believe they have a long-term future in the United Kingdom, and half have considered leaving Britain in the past two years due to antisemitism.