NEWARK – Police focused on a pawn shop owner whose address and phone number were in the pocket of someone when they killed four people. This led to investigators finding weapons he owned illegally.
U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said that Ahmed A-Hady, 36, of Keyport, pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Court Judge Katharine S. Hayden to an information charging him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
He was on police radar after a mass shooting in Jersey City on December 10, 2019. David Nathaniel Anderson and Francine Graham killed three civilians after earlier killing a law enforcement officer, police said.
In Anderson’s pocket was a handwritten note containing a phone number and an address. The phone number was registered to A-Hady and the address was for his pawn shop.
A search of the pawn shop and his home turned up multiple rifles, handguns, a shotgun, and more than 400 rounds of ammunition, some of them hollow point bullets.
“One of the weapons recovered from the pawnshop was a Sig Sauer .22 caliber rifle capable of accepting a large capacity magazine,” police said. “Records showed that A-Hady purchased this rifle in Florida on Oct. 23, 2012, a time when he, as a convicted felon, was prohibited from possessing firearms. The purchase of this rifle came approximately five months after A-Hady was convicted in New Jersey Superior Court of a crime that was punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than one year.”
A-Hady faces a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 9, 2021.
U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito credited special agents with the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. in Newark; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Charlie J. Patterson in Newark; the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General, under the direction of Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal; and the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Col Patrick J. Callahan, with the investigation leading to the plea. U.S. Attorney Carpenito also thanked the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Esther Suarez, and the Jersey City Police Department, under the direction of Director James Shea, for their assistance.
