Albany, New York — New York troopers stood guard Friday outdoors Temple Israel in Albany, sooner or later after authorities stated a person armed with a shotgun fired two rounds into the air outdoors the synagogue.
Thursday afternoon’s taking pictures incident compelled the synagogue’s preschool into lockdown. The suspect, later recognized as 28-year-old Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, fled to a close-by car parking zone however was shortly arrested. Nobody was injured.
”We had been instructed by responding officers that he made a remark, ’free Palestine,'” Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins stated in a information convention Thursday evening.
Alkhader, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen from Schenectady, New York, appeared in federal court docket Friday on a single depend of unlawfully possessing a firearm. Prosecutors are investigating this incident as a possible hate crime.
”I spoke with Dr. Rabbi Anderson tonight, and guaranteed her that the state of New York will do every little thing potential to revive the sense of safety that her congregation wants right now,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated in a briefing.
Hochul additionally stated she put state police and the New York Nationwide Guard on excessive alert and ordered the companies to extend patrols at synagogues, yeshivas and Jewish neighborhood facilities statewide, which had already been deliberate for Hanukkah.
The transfer comes as antisemitic incidents have surged nationwide. In accordance with numbers from the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents elevated 316% within the first month following the beginning of the Israel-Hamas struggle, in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months.
”No New Yorkers ought to ever really feel focused due to who they’re or what they imagine,” New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams stated Thursday. ”And our communities should really feel at residence, really feel secure.”
At Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Rabbi Marc Katz elevated safety earlier this 12 months after surveillance video captured a person making an attempt to firebomb his synagogue.
”My congregation is feeling scared and unnerved proper now,” Katz instructed CBS Information, including that his ”message to the congregation is to not let antisemitism win, and to be proudly Jewish, and to face agency in your resolve.”
In accordance with Hochul, Temple Israel additionally obtained a bomb menace in September. The governor stated she deliberate to attend Shabbat companies on the temple on Friday night.
The decide Friday ordered Alkhader to stay in custody pending trial. In accordance with the felony grievance, Alkhader was forbidden from possessing a firearm due to a earlier conviction for illegal possession of marijuana.
— C Mandler contributed to this report.
