UPDATED: RELIGIOUS LEADER KILLS HIMSELF INSIDE PRISON WHERE GUARDS MURDERED ROBERT BROOKS
CIVILIAN MUSLIM IMAM AT THE MARCY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY SHOT HIMSELF TO DEATH. STATE PRISON SYSTEM TEETERS ON BRINK OF CATASTROPHE, GUARDS AND PRISONERS SAY
Marcy Correctional Facility. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK Nov. 7, 2025, Last updated: 11:28PM Exclusive
The civilian Islamic leader at New York's troubled Marcy Correctional Facility killed himself inside the prison this morning.
Imam Abdallah Hadian, 55, walked into the prison with a handgun around 8:00am, strolled into the Superintendent’s office, sat down behind a secretary’s desk and shot himself in the head, confidential sources known to The Free Lance say.
Hadian did it in front of several other civilian workers. Bennie Thorpe, the prison’s superintendent, was not in the office at the time. Marcy’s executive team typically arrives after 8:00am, the sources said.
One of Imam Hadian’s brothers and the State Police confirmed his death. He left a suicide note, State Police said in a news release.
“We would not expect this from him,” the brother told The Free Lance. “He was not like that. He was at work the day before.”
Marcy is where guards murdered Robert Brooks last December.
Imam Hadian’s death comes a day after the president of the union representing New York’s prison guards, Chris Summers, warned in an editorial that the state’s prison system has reached a “breaking point.”
“Our members are struggling, both mentally and physically, under a workload and level of stress that are simply not sustainable,” Summers warned. “Every day brings more stress, more anxiety, and more frustration. Our members are reaching a breaking point, and I’m deeply worried that something devastating could happen if nothing changes.”
On Friday, after news of Hadian’s death broke, the guard union’s Executive Board issued this statement: “Words cannot express the sorrow and shock that we all feel in this moment.”
“On behalf of NYSCOPBA, we extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and every staff member—civilian and uniformed alike—who not only knew and worked alongside this individual, but those that responded in the line of duty or witnessed this heartbreaking tragedy.”
Meanwhile, men serving time inside New York’s sprawling 42-prison system confirm the union president’s warning the system is breaking.
Several tell The Free Lance they stayed calm after Brooks’ murder and through the 21-day state-wide wildcat strike by guards last winter because they thought the state legislature would pass new laws allowing merit time credit and other measurs that would speed their release from prison. But the legislature has not done that. Now, they say, they are considering some kind of protest.
At the same time, men at one maximum-security prison are being encouraged by guards to protest. One said he was told that, if they do protest, to “make it look good for both sides.”
Imam Hadian had six children. He and his family are long-time residents of Syracuse, where they own an auto repair shop.
A man who identified himself as Hadian’s son at the family’s residence Friday evening said his father was “very stressed out about work.” His father, he said, suffered a stroke several months ago. He just returned to work following a medical leave.
Hadian’s son was at school when he got the news. Now, he said, he had to take care of five brothers and siblings.
The embattled state agency that operates New York’s prisons, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS, confirmed the death.
“This morning a civilian staff member at Marcy Correctional Facility entered the administration building and tragically took his own life with a firearm he produced,” Thomas Mailey, DOCCS’ spokesperson, told The Free Lance in an email.
“Staff immediately began life saving measures, and EMTs and law enforcement were called to respond,” Mailey revealed. “However, due to the injuries, the individual could not be saved.”
Mailey added: “Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased, the staff at Marcy who witnessed this horrific action, and those who knew and worked with this person.”
DOCCS did not explain how a worker was able to carry a firearm into the prison. Other prison workers said it was partly because that’s what DOCCS wanted them do: bring them into the prison, for temporary storage inside the facility’s arsenal, instead of leaving them outside in their cars where they could be stolen.
Any worker licensed to carry a handgun was expected to check the weapon at the arsenal, but no measures ensued it. Workers were only subjected to randam, ocassional metal detector searches. The gun check at Marcy ran on the honor system, apparently.
Imam Hadian’s brother questioned the official account.
“They just allow you to walk into the prison with a gun?”
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