Jersey City Shooter Hid Handcuff Keys In His Underwear

A demolition and recovery crew works at the scene of the December 10, 2019 shooting at a kosher supermarket on December 11, 2019 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Image by BRYAN R. SMITH/Afp/AFP via Getty Images
The man and woman accused of killing three people in a Jersey City, N.J. kosher grocery store were both found to have keys that could unlock handcuffs — the man’s in his underwear, local news station NBC4 reported Monday, citing law enforcement sources.
Police searching through the clothes of David Anderson and Francine Graham, the alleged perpetrators of the shooting, found the keys, NBC4 reported, though it didn’t disclose where Graham’s key was hidden. Officials theorize that the keys could have been used to free themselves and escape should they have been captured alive by police. Instead, they died in a shootout with police after shooting an undercover police officer in a nearby cemetery and then killing three more in the grocery store.
A pawnshop owner in Keyport, New Jersey, 40 minutes away from Jersey City, was arrested on weapons charges on Saturday after his contact information was discovered in Anderson’s phone. Police are investigating whether he sold the duo weapons that they used in their alleged spree.
Officials said that Anderson is a former member of the anti-Semitic Black Hebrew Israelite movement, and that he railed against Jews and police on his social media pages. State attorney general Gurbir Grewal said Thursday that while the investigation is ongoing, officials believe the shooters were “clearly targeting” the kosher store and the police department.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Rabbi who left Harvard calls Trump threat ‘reasonable’ — but warns of looming consequences
-
Fast Forward Secretive GOP firm distorts Democratic candidate’s views on Israel in NJ governor race
-
Fast Forward Trump administration to review nearly $9 billion in Harvard funding over campus antisemitism
-
Yiddish World Yiddish fans in Berlin launch a Yiddish open mic series
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.