By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — A Muslim chaplain for the Department of Correction who once served 14 years in prison for murder was arrested Wednesday for trying to bring box cutter blades and scissors to "the Tombs" jail downtown.
Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, 58, of Staten Island, was employed by the department to provide religious services to inmates at the Manhattan Detention Center at 125 White St. He set off metal detectors when entering the correctional facility.
"The employee who was intercepted was suspended immediately," Correction Commissioner Dora Schriro said in a statement. "Additional steps up to and including dismissal will be pursued consistent with the findings of the Department of Investigation."
James McQueeney, Abdu-Shahid's lawyer, said his client was unaware the blades were in his bag. He was allowed to enter the jail after the blades were confiscated and "only later were questions raised about this," McQueeney told the New York Post.
Abdu-Shahid faces several charges of promoting prison contraband and faces up to seven years in prison. He was being held in lieu of $30,000 bail, the Post reported.
Abdu-Shahid is married, has three children, and has worked for Correction for three years. He earns $49,471 a year, the department said.
The imam was once known as Paul Pitts, who was convicted with three other men of murdering a customer during a 1976 Harlem supermarket robbery. He was let out on parole in 1993, and completed his parole in 2001.
“He has completely reformed his life," McQueeney told the New York Times.
Authorities are investigating a possible motive for this incident and whether it was part of a larger infraction.
