Jersey City mourns fallen detective as FBI search 2nd pawn shop

JERSEY CITY — Final goodbyes are being said to police Detective Joseph Seals in the city he had sworn to protect, as FBI agents look into potential ties to the duo that gunned Seals and three other victims down.

Lines were expected to be long for Seals' viewing at McLaughlin Funeral Home in Jersey City Monday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. A funeral mass Tuesday at Saint Aedan’s Church in Jersey City will start at 11 a.m.

Jersey City mayor Stephen Fulop thanked police departments from surrounding communities and their respective mayors who have offered to take over patrols Tuesday so that Jersey City officers can attend the funeral.

"Thank you. We are all in this together," Fulop tweeted.

Hundreds braved the cold on Sunday night in North Arlington, where Seals and his family are residents, where a candlelight vigil was held at Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church.

North Arlington Mayor Daniel Pronti told the crowd that Seals' family is comforted by the support they have received from a "sea of family" that makes up the community.

Seals was shot and killed a week ago by David Anderson and Francine Graham at Bay View Cemetery, according to state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, before the shooters went to the JC Kosher Grocery on Martin Luther King Boulvard and fired into the store, killing three victims: 31-year-old Mindy Ferencz, 24-year-old Moshe Deutsch and 49-year-old Douglas Miguel Rodriguez.

A Keyport man was arrested Saturday and faced weapons charges, after federal agents traced his name and an address from a slip of paper in Anderson's pocket, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito announced.

Ahmed A-Hady, 35, a previously convicted felon, was found to have at least one illegal handgun, while investigators searching A-Hady's home and a Keyport pawn shop recovered six rifles, three handguns and one shotgun, Carpenito said. Law enforcement also recovered more than 400 rounds of ammunition, including a large number of hollow-point bullets.

Carpenito did not make any direct connection between A-Hady and the Jersey City shooting in the weekend press release.

On Monday, Carpenito said the bail hearing for A-Hady had been moved to Wednesday at 11 a.m. In announcing the change on Twitter, the NJ U.S. Attorney's Office said "weapons and ammo were found during search of a pawn shop and residence connected to one of the perpetrators Jersey City mass shooting."

Alaa Hady, father of the Keyport man, told the Associated Press on Monday that at least some of the weapons recovered by federal agents were his, not his son's. Hady also said he was the owner of the Keyport pawnshop, while his son owned one in South Amboy, about 10 miles away.

On Monday, agents in FBI flak jackets were at a separate pawnshop in South Amboy. It could not immediately be determined if it was the same shop that Hady said was owned by his son.

The U.S. attorney's office has used the spelling A-Hady for the last name of the man charged, while his father spelled his own last name as Hady.

FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Newark field office, George W. Ehrie on Monday asked anyone "with knowledge of the two shooters, who had contact with them, employed them, worked for them or has information about them" to contact them at 800-CALL-FBI.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ