A New Jersey state trooper who excelled at training other officers shot himself to death in his patrol car Wednesday morning, becoming the second state trooper to die violently in less than two weeks.
The state police family is mourning the loss of Trooper Scott Graham a 35-year-old from Monmouth County who died of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound, state officials said today.
He was found shortly after 7:30 a.m. in a marked State Police vehicle parked on the side of the off ramp from the southbound Garden State Parkway southbound to Rt. 34 southbound in Wall Township, Monmouth County. This was reported by passing motorist who is a law enforcement officer.
Colonel Joseph R. Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, extended his condolences.
" We are again offering our support to another family coping with a tragic end to a loved one’s life," he said.
At 10:32 a.m.,Tpr. Graham was pronounced at the scene by a member of the Monmouth County Medical Examiner’s Office, who subsequently removed his body.
Tpr. Graham was a member of the 119th State Police Class. He graduated in March of 2001 and had been a trooper for ten years. He was assigned to the State Police Academy.
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He leaves behind a wife and three young children. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made. A report of a vehicle with possible gunshot holes was called in by a motorist shortly after Tpr. Graham was discovered. That report was investigated and found to be both inaccurate and unrelated to this tragic incident.
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