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Posted on 11/06/2004 9:18:41 PM PST by the_gospel_of_thomas
November 7, 2004 Suicide Is Suspected in Death at World Trade Center Site By MICHAEL BRICK
young man who told his family he was distraught over the result of the presidential election was found dead yesterday, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, inside the gated pit where the World Trade Center once stood, the authorities said.
The man was identified as Andrew J. Veal, 25, of Athens, Ga. A woman who answered the telephone at the home of Mr. Veal's parents, Jerry and Sharon Veal of Temple, Ga., identified herself as a close friend and said the family would not discuss the death.
Mr. Veal's neighbors in Athens did not return repeated telephone calls, and people in an apartment complex where he once lived said they did not recognize his name.
It was not clear how Mr. Veal had entered the site, which is guarded by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police. The gates are more than 15 feet tall, made of long metal slats with tarpaulins along the bottom half that obscure views of the interior.
Shortly before 8 a.m., a worker at the Millenium Hilton Hotel on Church Street, along the eastern border of the site, looked out a window on an upper floor of the hotel and saw a person who appeared to be sleeping inside the site, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority, which owns the 16-acre trade center property.
Hotel security workers called the Port Authority police, Mr. Coleman added.
A man named Pedro, who identified himself as the head of hotel security but refused to give his last name, adamantly denied this account.
"All the calls come down to us," he said. "Nothing came from this hotel."
Mr. Coleman said that the body was found about 20 yards inside the gates, in what is called a subterranean "bathtub" on the Church Street side near where the 1 and 9 subway trains pass underground.
Mr. Veal, who did not appear to have any ties to the victims of the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, was pronounced dead from a single gunshot wound, Mr. Coleman said.
The police confirmed that the victim had used a shotgun. No suicide note was found, they said.
Gus Danese, president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, said that the police contacted Mrs. Veal, who told them her son was upset about the result of the presidential election and had driven to New York.
Mr. Veal was identified last night as an employee of the University of Georgia's Survey Research Center, where the center's director, James Bason, said Mr. Veal had worked for about six years.
"He was a great guy," said Dr. Bason. "He was a great worker, and he did a great job for us. And he got along well with everyone. Again, we are all at a loss at to why something like this would happen."
Mr. Veal, he said, was known as Andy and managed the call center of the Survey Research Center. There, a staff of eight full-time employees and 50 part-time interviewers conducts public opinion surveys for professors and state agencies.
Although Dr. Bason said Mr. Veal was friendly and cheerful, he said, "I did not now a lot about his personal life," and added, "I did not know his political leanings at all."
A paper credited to an Andrew Veal at the University of Georgia that focuses on behavior patterns in churches is posted on the Internet.
Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office, said an autopsy will be performed today. Workers at the restaurants lining Liberty Street, the southern border of the gated area, said they saw a frenzy of police activity.
"The gate was open, and there were police and fireman crowded all around it," said Andrew Girsang, who works at a food market, Coast on Liberty Street, across from a gate to the site. "It's tight security in there."
In Athens, a former co-worker of Mr. Veal's, Julie Chance, said she had never talked with him about politics. "He was one of those guys you love to be around," she said. "Every day he made my workday much brighter. If I was having a bad day, he was there to lift me up."
Ms. Chance no longer works at the survey center and had not talked with Mr. Veal recently, so she could not say if he had been distraught. She said she had heard that he had gone to New York to visit a friend, but she did not know the friend.
A young man who answered the door at Mr. Veal's house and did not identify himself said: "I can't talk for him. I'm sorry. I just got the news today, and I'm in no frame of mind to talk."
William K. Rashbaum and Anne Berryman, from Athens, Ga., contributed reporting for this article.
The PETA crowd will hold a candlelight vigil until they realize he was a human.
Even a John Kerry voter deserves a better end than this.
May his poor tortured soul rest in peace.
What this shows, in my opinion is that
-- the fanatical Kerry supporters were mentally imbalanced to start with
-- the Dems shamelessly made use of such poor mentally imbalanced people and whipped them into such frenzy, scaring them about Bush so much, to drive them to suicide.
Someone needs to ask Kerry and McAuliffe, as well as Soros about this.
Will they take responsibility, that their lying rhetoric about Bush drove that poor man to suicide?
LOL...don't do that to me! Still LOL.
hhummmmmmm wonder who this is?
A young man who answered the door at Mr. Veal's house and did not identify himself said: "I can't talk for him. I'm sorry. I just got the news today, and I'm in no frame of mind to talk."
If you loan them your shotgun you should be prepared for them returning it without cleaning it first...they're just that way.
And one more thing -- the Democrats CREATE and FOSTER a VICTIM mentality.
This death must be squarely pinned on Michael Moore, George Soros, the MoveOn.org crew and their ilk. It was their doomsaying that engendered the sense of hopelessness in this young man's mind. It was their death-wish grade lack of hope that gave this young man the impression that death was the only way out.
I say all of those criminal cretins should be hauled in as accessories to murder.
Thank God our conservative ancestors were made of sterner stuff.
Killing yourself because your candidate didn't win, ...words fail me.
For all the crying Libs out there moaning and wailing, stop it.
If the libs really believe in something, they should stick around and fight for it in the marketplace of ideas. Even when they lose. In many cases, losing can help a political org. It helps them re-examine themselves.
Imagine how the Republicans were way back in the day.
Goldwater gets trounced by LBJ, Nixon gets Impeachment, Ford loses a squeaker. Generations of Dem control of congress....It would have been easy to give up as a conservative Republican in the mid-70's.
But then you would have missed all the fun of the Reagan Revolution of the 80's.
The leftist need to get a grip on reality.
No. They should, however. Michael Moore included.
Good post. Well said. Thanks.
The leftists stirred the HATE for 4 years!! The far-left scared people for 4 years. This is their fault.
This is the direct result of MoveOn and other leftie groups deliberately fanning the flames of hatred and panic through their cold, calculated lies about President Bush. They use people and had to know this would happen...
Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Ramsey Clark and fellow leftists running the groups are utter snakes.
You aren't kidding. They still won't let go of those stupid "exit polls" that sKerry then the AP put out. They think Karl Rove (Evil Genius) somehow rigged the election. To illustrate the madness even further, they think CNN is in cahoots with Rove!
Not me. Go for it folks...it's quicker then going to Canada! Boom, and you're happy again!
I guess my conservative compassion has failed me.
This is the fault of the radical left and their media for running a HATE-SCARE campaign for the last 4 years.
Well, he was a gun owner...gotta respect that :)
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