New York man pleads guilty to federal charges for firing gun outside synagogue
A New York man pleaded guilty to civil rights and firearm charges Tuesday for firing a shotgun outside a synagogue two months after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, federal prosecutors said.
Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, 29, of Schenectady, New York, was arrested in December 2023 after firing two shots and yelling "Free Palestine!" outside Temple Israel in Albany, New York, just hours before the start of Hanukkah. Alkhader was arrested shortly after the incident and court documents revealed he told police in interviews that "events in the Middle East have impacted him."
He was initially charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person because of his unlawful use of marijuana, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York. Alkhader was also charged with conspiracy to make a false statement during the purchase of a firearm days after his arrest.
Alkhader pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by threat of force, one count of brandishing a firearm during the commission of this offense, and one count of conspiring to purchase a firearm unlawfully, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
"The defendant’s violent, antisemitic, and terrifying act targeted the Temple Israel congregation, the larger Jewish community, and the right of every person to practice their religion without fear of violence," U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman said in a statement.
Alkhader, who has been in federal custody since his arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 6. He faces at least seven years and up to life in prison, as well as a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of up to five years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Synagogue daycare went into lockdown after shots were fired
Prosecutors said Alkhader took an Uber from his home in Schenectady to the synagogue on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 2023. He then walked up to the front steps of Temple Israel and removed a shotgun from a duffel bag before firing two shots into the air shouting, "Free Palestine!" according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Alkhader also attempted to remove an Israeli flag from a flagpole outside of the synagogue before walking away from the scene, prosecutors said. At the time of the incident, Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins said officers arrested Alkhader about three minutes after the shots were fired.
He was detained in a parking lot around 300 yards away from the synagogue, according to Hawkins. No one was injured in the incident but a daycare operating inside the synagogue was forced into lockdown.
"Alkhader also significantly disrupted activities that the Temple Israel community had planned to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and made congregants afraid to return to their place of worship," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Alkhader later admitted to authorities that he and another man conspired with each other to illegally purchase a shotgun from a gun shop, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said Andrew Miller — also from Schenectady — and Alkhader drove to a federal firearms dealer in Albany in November 2023, where Miller purchased the shotgun. Miller later gave the shotgun to Alkhader, which was fired outside of Temple Israel.
Miller was sentenced in October 2024 to 14 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Increase in violent incidents since Oct. 7 attacks
Since Oct. 7, 2023, people across the United States have endured antisemitic epithets, anti-Muslim rhetoric and near-violence in response to the war. Advocacy groups have reported a spike in hate crime incidents, including Islamophobia and antisemitism.
The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents in the U.S., recorded more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the year after Oct. 7.
At the same time, the Council on American-Islamic Relations — the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group — reported that anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian complaints topped 8,000 in 2023, with nearly half of these complaints reported in the final three months of the year. The group also documented nearly 5,000 complaints of discrimination between January and June 2024.
The Oct. 7 attacks reignited decades-old hostilities and sparked an Israeli military response that has claimed the lives of more than 46,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities. A ceasefire and hostage release deal was reached last month.
The first phase of the deal, which is set to run until early March, includes the release of 33 hostages in return for the freeing of nearly 2,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Last week, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians began their journey back to the ruins of the Gaza Strip they once called home.
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Kim Hjelmgaard, Marc Ramirez, and Sara Chernikoff, Paste BN