ABSECON, N.J. - Near the front door of a church not far from his home, a New Jersey state trooper who had come to be known as a whistle-blower in the racial-profiling controversy in the department shot himself to death yesterday, officials said.

John L. Oliva, 36, of Absecon, was found at 10:36 a.m. outside St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church at Route 30 and Mill Road by a parishioner who was going inside. The parishioner ran to the rectory to summon help, the church's pastor said.

"As soon as the parishioner who found him ran in to tell us, we called 911, and then I went immediately to pray over the body," the Rev. Robert Smith said.

Police found Oliva lying face up in the grass. Next to his body was a loaded .40-caliber Glock and some personal effects, among them a photograph of his girlfriend, investigators said.

Oliva died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's Office said. The bullet grazed his heart and perforated his liver and other internal organs.

The father of two had been a police officer in Pleasantville and Absecon, both in Atlantic County. He served four years in the Marine Corps and graduated with honors from the New Jersey State Police Academy in November 1998.

In May 2001, Oliva sued the state police in federal court, accusing the organization of teaching him to profile by race, then harassing him and sabotaging his career when he refused.

Almost immediately after he became a trooper, Oliva said in his suit, a trainer taught him to stop motorists based on race and then write reports that covered up the procedure.

Oliva had been out on stress leave. He had regularly visited both a psychologist and psychiatrist and had been taking antidepressants to steady his nerves, he said in an interview last year.

In May, a one sentence letter from Joseph Santiago, state police superintendent, notified Oliva that the superintendent was "contemplating not reappointing" Oliva when his enlistment expired.

Trooper Emblez Longoria, who also alleges racial profiling and harassment in a suit against the state police, said he was deeply saddened by Oliva's death.

"John always had a strong sense of right and wrong, and he was someone who always wanted to do the right thing," said Longoria, who had become close friends with Oliva during the last two years. "And that's how I'll always remember him."

Father Smith said it was unclear whether Oliva had gone inside the Absecon church yesterday morning or if he regularly attended services there. He was not registered as a member, Father Smith said.

In an interview last spring about the pending suit, Oliva said he was simply looking for justice.

"I just want to know that what I did was worth it - that what happened to me will never happen to anyone else," he said.

Within two months of his graduation from the New Jersey State Police Academy, racial profiling in the state made national headlines after two white troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike fired shots at a van containing four minority men, wounding three of them.

The troopers in the shooting were punished for wrongdoing after telling authorities that racial profiling and other abuses were rampant in the organization.