MAKKAH: Financial pressures appear to have led a retired security officer to commit suicide at his home in Al-Zaher District in western Makkah Sunday. His body was found by a resident in a ventilation shaft of the building. Maj. Abdul Muhsin Al-Maiman, Spokesman of Makkah Police, said a security team rushed to the scene and the body was examined by a forensics doctor. He said investigations are underway to determine the circumstances and causes of death, and to see if there was any foul play. Al-Maiman said the body is being kept at King Faisal Hospital in Al-Shisha where an autopsy will be conducted and a medical report issued. A specialist criminal evidence team examined the scene to lift fingerprints and collect the tools allegedly used to cause the man's death. They identified the body and took pictures. Informed sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the man was a 57-year-old retired security officer. He had completed his service about 10 years ago with a rank of Warrant Officer 2nd Class. A son of the man told investigators the family had no idea their father wanted to take his own life. He said his father lived his last hours normally and had attended a marriage ceremony. “After the marriage party, he took us to my grandmother's home as usual. We were surprised yesterday to be summoned following the incident,” he said. “We had never noticed any signs of our father suffering from psychiatric disorders or having any [fights] with his neighbors or acquaintances. He was a very peaceful person. Since his retirement over 10 years ago, he did not leave the house often, but recently he was in a difficult financial situation.” Abdullah Al-Attas, the only eyewitness, said he used to provide his late neighbor with newspapers every day. “I would hand them over to him from the common ventilation shaft for the apartments. I was shocked to find the man lying on the floor in a pool of blood and beside him were a number of knives used in the crime. I don't know whether he had used them to take his own life or whether they were used by someone else against him.”
