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A day after a Phoenix police sergeant was found shot to death near the Arizona Capitol, a Department of Public Safety officer was found dead in a hotel room at a Scottsdale resort, and DPS officials suspect it may have been suicide.
Officer/paramedic Mark Serna, 43, of New River, was found dead in his Scottsdale hotel room yesterday afternoon. There were no signs of foul play.
DPS officials tell New Times they have to wait until the medical examiner’s office completes an investigation but that it appears the officer took his own life.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce DPS has lost one of our sworn officers,” DPS Director Robert Halliday says in a press release. “My sincere condolences, thoughts and prayers go out to Mark’s family and to all the DPS employees.”
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Officials wouldn’t say how the officer died or if there was anything going on in the officer’s life that might drive him to take his own life.
Serna was a nine-year veteran of DPS. He started his career as a patrolman in Casa Grande. He joined Central Air Rescue Unit in 2003, where he served as a paramedic.
Serna was born in Silver City, New Mexico, but moved to Cottonwood, where he graduated from Mingus Union High School.
He’s survived by his parents and three children.
