Shabazz leaves jail
KINGSTON – Local community activist Ismail Shabazz, formerly known as Gary Faulkner, was released from the Ulster County Jail on Tuesday following his arrest in late June. He was released on $100,000 bond.
Shabazz had been held in jail on charges of felony weapons sales.
At the time of his arrest, authorities said he had become a person of interest in a federal investigation in 2013 when information was developed that he had recruited members of the Bloods street gang into the New Black Panthers Party in Kingston and was allegedly advocating violence against police officers.
In the ensuing year, federal agents purchased six illegal weapons from Shabazz out of his home in Kingston including two assault rifles, two loaded handguns, an unloaded revolver, and a sawed-off shotgun with its serial number defaced.
