A Meriden man admits he made a major mistake when he fired gunshots into a mosque next door to his home. The incident took place in November in the hours after the terror attacks in Paris.
Now he has done something that many in the mosque had been hoping he would do.
"I just ask for your forgiveness," said Ted Hakey Jr., apologizing to the members of the Baitul Aman Mosque.
"I'd like to apologize to the whole community," said Hakey. "It just shouldn't have happened."
Hakey said he was sorry for firing gunshots into the empty mosque next door to his house in the hours after the Paris terrorist attacks in November.
"Of course there was initially fear and then the police came right away," said Dr. Muhammad Quereshi, the President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Connecticut.
Hakey told the mosque members on Saturday that he had been drinking alcohol on that November evening and that he was frightened of a religion that he knew nothing about.
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"I wish that I had come on knocked on your door and if I had spent five minutes with you, it would have been all the difference in the world and I didn't do that," said Hakey.
In February, Hakey pleaded guilty to intentional destruction of religious property with a dangerous weapon.
"I'd like to go forward with learning and helping other people not make the same mistake I did," he said.
Hakey is currently out on bond but he still has to be sentenced. Federal guidelines suggest that he serve eight to fourteen months in prison.
A judge is scheduled to sentence Hakey on June 7.
