Muslim chaplain arrested on weapons smuggling charges at NY jail has violent past

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A New York City Department of Corrections Muslim chaplain was arrested Tuesday morning, at the Manhattan Detention Complex commonly referred to as the “Tombs.” The imam is accused of attempting to smuggle bladed objects into the jail.

According to police, Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, 58, was stopped after an X-ray machine alerted guards to several metallic objects in his duffel bag. A search of the bag turned up three 1-1/2-inch-long straight razors and a pair of 7-inch scissors.

Abdu-Shahid, was placed under arrest and charged with four counts of first-degree promoting prison contraband, a felony, and four counts of the same charge in the second degree, a misdemeanor.

Abdu-Shahid is being held on $30,000 bail. The imam claims he did not know the blades and scissors were in his bag.

Though a paid employee of the NY Department of Corrections, the Islamic chaplain has a very bloody criminal history.

On Dec. 9, 1976, Abdu-Shahid, then known as Paul Pitts, and two others held up a Harlem grocery store, and during the robbery shot to death a 30-year-old customer named Philip Crawford.

In 1976, Pitts, was convicted of second-degree murder, and first-degree robbery. In 1979, he entered a New York state prison, and began serving his 15-years-to-life sentence. He was paroled in 1993, and completed his parole in 2001.

The NY Post discovered that his criminal record also includes an arrest for sexual assault in Queens.

Despite his violent past, Abdu-Shahid was hired by the Department of Corrections as a Muslim chaplain in 2007, at an annual salary of $49,471.

Immediately following his latest arrest, Department of Corrections Commissioner Dora Schriro announced that the Muslim cleric had been suspended. Schriro told reporters that “a thorough review of his hiring,” would be conducted.

 

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