The Connecticut State Police have identified the veteran trooper who died Thursday in raging floodwaters caused by Hurricane Ida.
Sgt. Brian Mohl was on a road in Woodbury when he was caught in flooding from the rain-swollen Pomperaug River, the state police said in a news release. He was found hours later by search and rescue teams and airlifted to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he died.
“It is with deep regret and sadness that I report that the State Police today lost a good man who dedicated more than a quarter century to protecting the citizens of Connecticut. Sgt. Mohl was committed to helping others, to keeping public safety his priority and to always assisting his fellow Troopers,” Col. Stavros Mellekas, the state police's commanding officer.
Described as a well-respected veteran trooper, Mohl graduated from the State Police Training Academy in June 1995 and assigned to Troop A in Southbury. He was transferred to Troop L in Litchfied when he was promoted to sergeant in 2000.
Mohl also served as a sergeant at Troop B in North Canaan, Troop G in Bridgeport and Troop H in Hartford before returning to Troop L in 2008. He is the 25th trooper to die in the line of duty.
“Every line of duty death is heartbreaking and the loss of Sgt. Mohl is no different," Mellekas stated. "He was outside, in the middle of the night, in horrendous conditions, patrolling the Troop L area. He was doing a job he loved and he was taken much too soon.”
