Bayshore Man Tied To Jersey City Shooting Sentenced To 18 Months

KEYPORT, NJ - The owner of a pawn shop in Keyport was sentenced this week via videoconference to 18 months in prison for illegally possessing an assault rifle, authorities said. The sentencing comes in connection to an hours-long police standoff in Jersey City in 2019 where three civilians, two suspects and a Jersey City police officer were shot and killed.

Ahmed A-Hady, 36, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Katharine S. Hayden to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The standoff began on Dec. 10, 2019 when David Nathaniel Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, killed three civilians in a Jewish grocery store in the Greenville section of Jersey City. They then barricaded themselves inside the store, and fired at police during an hours-long standoff. The shooters were ultimately killed by law enforcement.

The incident was investigated as a hate crime, as Anderson had previously expressed anti-Semitic and anti-law enforcement beliefs.

A-Hady was arrested in December 2019 after a handwritten note with his phone number on it was found in one of the shooters' pants.

On Dec. 13, FBI agents traveled to the Keyport pawn shop and interviewed A-Hady and two of his relatives. Authorities also searched the pawnshop and A-Hady's home. The Asbury Park Press previously reported that the pawn shop is owned by A-Hady's father and A-Hady lives above it on the second floor.

During the search of the pawnshop, agents recovered multiple rifles, handguns and one shotgun, according to authorities. Police also recovered more than 400 rounds of ammunition, including a "large number" of 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. Records showed that A-Hady purchased this rifle in Florida on Oct. 23, 2012, 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.

Moshe Hersh Deutsch, 24, and Leah Mindel Ferencz, 33, who owned the kosher grocery store with her husband, were identified as two of the civilian victims, The Record reports. A 48-year-old customer was identified by The Jewish Press as a third victim of the shooting.

In addition to the prison term, A-Hady is sentenced to three years of supervised release. A-Hady forfeited his interest in the firearms recovered during the pawnshop search.

With reporting by Carly Baldwin.