An inmate held on Rikers Island died Wednesday morning, marking the city’s 14th Rikers-related death this year, officials said.

Kevin Bryan, 35, who was in custody at the Eric M. Taylor Center, was pronounced dead at 7:44 a.m., the Department of Correction said in a press release. 

The city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said on Thursday that the cause of death was hanging and the manner of death was suicide. 

Bryan entered Department of Correction custody on Sept. 8, 2022 for second degree burglary charges, according to the agency.

“We are very distressed to hear about the death of Mr. Bryan. Our deepest condolences go out to his loved ones,” DOC Commissioner Louis A. Molina said, in a statement. “We will conduct a preliminary investigation into the circumstances surrounding this death for which we grieve."

According to the captains' union and the correction officers’ union, Bryan was attacked by several other inmates in a dormitory style housing area.

The head of the correction officers’ union, Benny Boscio, told NY1 the only officer on duty in that housing area pulled Bryan into a hallway away from the other detainees, and behind a locked gate. From there, Boscio said the officer called for extra support, but meanwhile, Bryan entered a bathroom dedicated for officers’ use in that hallway. According to Boscio, the lock on the outside of that door was broken, but Bryan was able to deadbolt the bathroom door from the inside.

The head of the captains’ union, Patrick Ferraiuolo, told NY1 it was “quite some time” before authorities could open the door and when they did, they found Bryan had hung himself.

Housing areas are supposed to have two officers staffing them – an A officer and a B officer. Multiple sources told NY1 there was no B officer in this unit. 

Both union heads said an officer shortage is to blame for the incident.

“You can only do what you can do with the amount of officers we have,” Ferraiuolo said.

Unions urged the city to hire 578 officers in this year’s budget, but that was rejected by the City Council.

In August, on average, 12% of the Department of Correction staff was out sick, while 8% of the staff was on medically modified duty last month, according to the city comptroller’s office. 

The department considers this inmate to be the 13th death in custody this year, but an additional 14th inmate passed away days after being granted compassionate release following a suicide attempt. 

Last year, there were 16 Rikers-related deaths.