The Phoenix Police Department has identified the sergeant found shot to death near the state capitol last night.
The deceased officer is 35-year-old Sergeant Sean Drenth.
Drenth is a 12-year veteran of the department and leaves behind his wife of 13 years and his mother.
In 2003, Drenth received the department's medal of valor after he rescued people trapped in an apartment fire that had spread from a nearby storage facility.
"Our
thoughts and prayers are certainly with his family, and we will be
doing everything humanly possible to find out what happened," Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris
said at a press conference this morning.
According to the Phoenix Police Department, officers began looking for
Drenth after he failed to respond to radio calls around 10 p.m.
yesterday.
Around 11 p.m., Capitol Police spotted what they
thought was an abandoned police cruiser in an alley behind the Arizona
Department of Transportation parking lot near 17th Avenue and Jefferson
Street. Inside, they found Drenth's body.
Police are looking for suspects and trying to determine whether there are any surveillance cameras in the area that
may have recorded shooting.
The Phoenix Police Department has a lot on its plate right now -- the department is currently investigating two officer-involved shootings and an officer charged with assault after allegedly choking his live-in girlfriend -- so Harris is asking for the public's patience as the department continues to investigate the shooting.