Schenectady man gets 14 months for buying gun used in shooting outside Temple Israel

A Schenectady man was sentenced to more than a year in prison for purchasing the shotgun that the suspect used in the shooting outside Temple Israel last December.

Andrew Miller, 38, received a 14-month sentence. In June, he pleaded guilty in federal court that he lied to a firearms dealer in Albany County that he was the actual buyer of a 12-gauge pump shotgun that police said Mufid Fawaz Alkhader used outside Temple Israel in Albany, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.  

Alkhader could not legally buy the gun himself because of a federal conviction for marijuana possession.

Alkhader is accused of firing two shots in the air on the first night of Hanukkah on Dec. 7, 2023.

No one was injured. He was caught nearby. Alkhader reportedly told police that he was responding to events in the Middle East and yelled “Free Palestine.”