The head of security at 1 World Trade Center was forced out of the job Friday amid a series of embarrassing security breaches, The Post has learned.
David Velazquez — former director of the Newark FBI field office — was in charge when BASE jumpers leaped from the roof in September and a teen from New Jersey slipped up to the antenna two weeks ago. He is also responsible for the half-blind, aging security guard who was caught sleeping in the lobby in a photo exclusively obtained by The Post.
Velazquez resigned from his position as ¬assistant security director for The Durst Organization under pressure from bosses, sources said. Asked whether ¬Velazquez was fired, Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz said, “He submitted his resignation and it was accepted.”
Velazquez, a graduate of Columbia University who spent 31 years at the FBI, took the job at Durst in August 2013.
Guard Abdul Basher, called “2013 Security Officer of the Year,” slumbers on the job at 1 WTC.
The next month, three daredevils — including a Freedom Tower ironworker — parachuted from the 104th floor with the help of a lookout on the ground.
It took six months for the four to be captured.
Two weeks ago, Justin Casquejo, 16, slipped through a fence and made it all the way to the roof — sneaking past a sleeping guard on the 104th floor. That breach was also first reported by The Post.
Casquejo spent two hours snapping pictures before getting caught on his way back down.
Just six days later, an aging and admittedly half-blind security guard, Abdul Basher, 65, was sleeping in the south lobby, where he was the only guard on duty.
Velazquez could not be reached for comment.
A Port Authority official said Velazquez “wasn’t a hands-on person who would address issues. He was a presence, but a nervous presence, although the nervousness may have arisen because of management’s reluctance to act on certain deficiencies he recognized.”
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