Gov. Kathy Hochul joined hundreds of police officers Monday to honor a state trooper who drowned while on duty at a lake in the Adirondack Mountains.
Trooper James Monda, 45, died while working a marine detail on the Great Sacandaga Lake on Aug. 22.
Hochul lined up with gray-clad troopers standing in formation outside a Schenectady church before the trooper's funeral.
“He was a hard worker. We selected him for a number of special details because of that work ethic that he had,” Maj. Christopher West, the commander of Troop G, told reporters before the private ceremony.
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West mentioned Monda’s special assignments at the state fair and as an ATV operator and short rifle member, in addition to the marine unit, according to the Daily Gazette.
For reasons that remain under investigation, Monda went into the water with diving gear at a boat launch and did not resurface. The 18-year veteran of the force was pulled from the water and pronounced dead at an area hospital.
The Rotterdam native is survived by his fiancée, mother and father.
