Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced Thursday the first cancer-related death of an agent that worked at the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
ATF Special Agent William Sheldon Jr. died on March 2 following a battle with cancer that was linked to exposure to debris from the towers by physicians from the World Trade Center Commission, according to The New York Daily News.
Sheldon and two other colleagues were later diagnosed with cancer after he and four other agents were rushed to Ground Zero to search for survivors.
The 47-year-old was an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. He is survived by his wife, Gabriela; a son, John, 8; a daughter, Anna, 5; his parents, William Sr. and Judith; a sister Elizabeth; a brother-in-law Scott; a nephew Joshua, 8; his mother-in-law, Tsedale Gebretsadik; and brothers-in-law Jimmy, Abi, Michael and Armias.
Funeral services will be held in Winter Park, Fla., on Monday and he will be buried in Culpepper National Cemetery in Culpepper, Va., on Thursday.
