Suicide At 'Ground Zero'

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Port Authority Investigating Ground Zero Suicide

The Port Authority Sunday said it was investigating the private security firm hired to guard Ground Zero after a man gained access to the site over the weekend and killed himself with a shotgun, officials said.

The body of 25-year-old Andrew Veal, a research worker from the University of Georgia, was found in the World Trade Center pit Saturday morning, lying near a shotgun.

A source said Veal may have been suffering from some personal problems, though his family has told authorities that he was very upset about the war in Iraq and President George W. Bush's re-election.

Sam Plumeri Jr., the superintendent of the Port Authority Police, said the agency had launched a full-scale investigation into the security that was on hand Friday night and Saturday morning, when Veal's body was found near the Church Street perimeter.

"I am extremely concerned about what happened and the breach of security that occurred on the site. We have interviewed members of the private security company at the site and Port Authority police officers who were stationed there," Plumeri said. "We are still looking to talk to people who live, work or were visiting the area."

The private guards are employed by FJC Security Services, a Floral Park-based company that the Port Authority hired last year to help its police patrol Newark Airport, the bridges, PATH facilities and the World Trade Center site. An operator at FJC said a company spokesman could not be reached Sunday.

Gus Danese, president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, said most of the security around the World Trade Center site is provided by the private security guards.

"It's their responsibility," he said. "It is open and you do have people, workers, and I guess someone could find his way down there. It's not exactly Fort Knox."

Danese called the outsourcing "probably not the best idea."

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman declined to comment on what Danese said. Coleman did say that "the private security guards are the ones who actually cover the gates that lead into the site." The site has five gates, he added. Meanwhile, friends and family yesterday continued to cope with Veal's death, officially ruled a suicide by the city medical examiner.

Leigh Hall, a friend who worked with Veal at the University of Georgia survey research center, said she would miss his sense of humor and his interest in turning the negative into the positive.

Hall said Veal, who was a lab manager, had to assess every employee this year in a written evaluation.

"I could tell he had the hardest time writing bad things about people. He was so immensely positive about 'not good' workers here. He really tried to be encouraging," said Hall, who reviewed Veal's evaluations Saturday. "It was very touching to see it in his handwriting."

Veal, an avid cyclist and a vegetarian, wanted to be a chef, friends said. He worked a second job as a cook at Amici's Italian Cafe in Athens, Ga. He was engaged to be married to an Iowa college student.

As of Sunday night, no one had claimed his body from the medical examiner's office.