WSSV News

An inmate at the Saratoga County Jail is accused of assaulting a corrections officer. According to WNYT, 44 year old
Godfrey A. Waldron of Saratoga Springs injured the officer’s face on Dec. 4, and was charged this week with second-degree assault. The officer was treated at the scene.

More than $100,000 in merchandise was stolen from a Saratoga Springs store. WNYT reports police were called to Lola Saratoga on Broadway, around 5 a.m. Tuesday. The front door was smashed, the building was ransacked and now police are looking for two suspects who left in a dark-colored sedan. They were headed north on Broadway towards Route 9 and Route 50.

The Saratoga Economic Development Corporation has long claimed it’s a private entity, and not subject to the public disclosure protocols that all authorities are required to follow in New York State. WRGB reports now a unanimous ruling from the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court said the Corporation is indeed subject to disclosure and reporting as outlined in the Public Authorities Law.

A Clifton Park man has admitted to sending sexually explicit texts to someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl. WNYT reports 30 year old Michael Kirkland pleaded guilty Monday to attempted online enticement of a minor. Kirkland sent the text messages on Aug. 11, 2022, in an effort get the child to participate in sex acts with him. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on April 11.

The Schenectady man accused of firing a shotgun outside Temple Israel on Thursday is now charged with allegedly getting a friend to buy the weapon because he knew he wasn’t allowed to own a firearm. WNYT reports 28 year old Mufid Fawaz Alkhader is accusing of firing a 12-gauge shotgun twice into the air at about 2 p.m. No one was injured and the building was not damaged.

Saratoga Springs Youth Ballet presents the Nutcracker. The Saratogian reports performances will be held at 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec 16, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec 17 at the Performing Arts Center at the University at Albany. All ticket proceeds directly support the Saratoga Springs Youth Ballet, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Tickets are available at ssyballet.ticketleap.com/the-nutcracker.

Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, the man accused of firing a shotgun on the front steps of Temple Israel in Albany on Thursday, was charged in federal court with one count of felony possession of firearm as a prohibited person, this relating to an unlawful use of a controlled substance. WRGB reports the maximum sentence for this charge is up 15 years with possibilities of a $250,000 fine.

Two people were arrested in Wilton following a drug sale investigation, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. 57 year old Russel Hedger of Salisbury, Maryland, and 27 year old Dominique Barne of Princess Anne, Maryland, are both facing multiple charges after they were found, say police, with a large quantity of crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia with intent to sell in the county.

The Route 50 Diner in Ballston Spa reopened Thursday morning after it was briefly shuttered and seized by the state Department of Taxation and Finance Tuesday. The Daily Gazette reports a family member of the owner confirmed the diner’s reopening Thursday, but didn’t have details on the brief closure and its resolution. However, the family member said the owner has been dealing with a lot following the loss of his father Walter, who opened the diner, in 2021 and then his mother in 2022.

A 28 year old man fired a shotgun twice outside Temple Israel in Albany hours before the start of Hanukkah on Thursday, then said “Free Palestine” as he was taken into custody, police said. No one was injured. The Saratogian reports the episode in the state capital of Albany took place amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide and fallout from Israel’s intensifying war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll.