A man who purchased a Kel-Tec KS7 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and then illegally transferred it for use in terrorizing the Jewish community by firing the weapon twice outside a synagogue has admitted to his crime.
On Thursday, straw-buyer Andrew Miller, 38, of Schenectady, N.Y., pleaded guilty to buying the gun for $599.99 last year between Oct. 1 and Nov. 6, before then illegally transferring it to Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, 28, who still faces charges. The two determined that Alkhader could not purchase the gun due to an illegal marijuana charge.
Alkhader allegedly shot the gun on Dec. 7 outside Temple Israel in Albany, N.Y. He faces two charges that could get him up to 20 years in prison.
Miller is expected to receive his sentence on Oct. 18. It could include as much as five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
The case is an investigation between the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Albany Police Department with assistant U.S. attorneys Rick Belliss and Alexander Wentworth-Ping serving as prosecutors.
