US man whose info was found on kosher market attacker due in court

A New Jersey man whose number was found in the back pocket of one of the perpetrators of last week’s fatal shootings at a US Jewish market is due in court today to face a weapons charge unrelated to the attack.

Ahmed A-Hady, of Keyport, is charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon. He was convicted of a drug charge in 2012. He is scheduled to appear in US District Court in Newark in the afternoon.

A-Hady’s number was found in the pants pocket of David Anderson, one of two attackers killed by police after an hours-long standoff at the JC Kosher Supermarket. Anderson and Francine Graham killed Jersey City Police Det. Joseph Seals before storming the store, killing three people inside. The attack is being investigated as domestic terrorism.

Anderson and Graham are also prime suspects in the slaying of a livery driver found dead in a car trunk in nearby Bayonne the previous weekend, authorities have said.

A-Hady hasn’t been charged with providing any of the weapons used in Tuesday’s shootings. The FBI said searches of his residence and a pawnshop in Keyport where he works — about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of where the shootings occurred — yielded weapons including three AR-15-style assault rifles, three handguns and one shotgun, as well as more than 400 rounds of ammunition.

CBS2NY reports that A-Hady’s brother said the family never heard of the suspects and the pawnshop doesn’t sell firearms.

— AP