Pawnshop owner pleads guilty to weapons charge in connection with 2019 Jersey City shootings

A Keyport, New Jersey, pawnshop owner whose phone number turned up in the pocket of one of the assailants in last December's Jersey City shootings pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single criminal charge.

Ahmed A-Hady pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a weapon during a hearing conducted by videoconference.

A-Hady was charged after his phone number and the address to his pawn shop were found on a note in the pocket of David Anderson, one of the two assailants who police say killed Jersey City police detective Joe Seals in a cemetery and, subsequently, three people inside a kosher grocery store on December 10, 2019.

"That's what drew the attention of the FBI to that location, which was ultimately searched two days later," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Kearney.

Federal authorities recovered 12 firearms, including three AR-15 style firearms, in the pawn shop and apartment above the store where A-Hady lived. Three of the weapons were registered to A-Hady, who could not legally possess them as a convicted felon.

A-Hady was previously convicted in 2012 for attempting to obtain a controlled dangerous substance or analog by fraud.

A-Hady was not linked in any other way to the Jersey City shootings, and prosecutors did not provide evidence he had communicated with the two shooters.

Anderson and girlfriend Francine Graham died in a gun battle with police during the grocery store attack.