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Head Of Security At 1 WTC Resigns After Embarrassing Breaches
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 29, 2014
Modified Mar 29, 2014
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 29, 2014
Modified Mar 29, 2014
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Thanks to a series of embarrassing security slip-ups—including 16-year-old Justin Casquejo's break in two weeks ago—the head of security for 1 World Trade Center has resigned.
David Velasquez, assistant security director for real estate firm the Durst Organization, resigned yesterday; both Casquejo's break-in and the September break-in of four BASE jumpers have been cited as likely factors for his resignation. In both incidents, the alleged trespassers were able to slip through a hole in a security fence and climb up to the top of the building without being stopped. "We just kind of walked in. t’s supposed to be the most secure building in the world. God forbid it was somebody else getting in there with a real intention to harm New Yorkers," Andrew Rossig, one of the alleged BASE jumpers, told the Times last week.
Velasquez, a former FBI agent who served as the director of the FBI's field office in Newark, is not the only person associated with WTC security to lose his job over the breaches: 65-year-old Abdul Basher, who was the only guard on duty the night Casquejo snuck up to the top of the building, was fired after investigators discovered he was sleeping on the job. Basher, who suffers from a neurological disorder that affects his site, told reporters he was relieved by the firing because sometimes he could "barely see half of the lobby."
Velasquez assumed his position with Durst in August, but the company says he did not take charge of 1 WTC until January. His resignation is not effective immediately, and hopefully he'll stick around long enough to patch up that security fence.
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