Reserve Sergeant Mark Maynard Dryer

Mark Maynard Dryer

Reserve Sergeant Mark Dryer was killed when he was struck by a drunk driver during a traffic stop on I-10, approximately 20 miles south of Phoenix, at 12:45 am. He was speaking to the driver of the car that he had stopped when the drunk driver struck his patrol car and then struck him. He was flown to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries four hours later.

The 32-year-old driver of the vehicle was sentenced to 15 years in prison. On March 25, 2015, a Texas state trooper stopped to investigate a pickup truck parked on the side of the road off I-35 in Comal County. Inside was the driver who killed Sergeant Dryer. He was performing a deviant sex act and was arrested for possession of a gram of methamphetamine and attempting to destroy evidence before the trooper got him under control. Since leaving the Arizona prison, he has been arrested in Texas several times for indecent exposure and other crimes too horrible to mention involving strange sex acts. He was jailed and refused bail. In 2017 he was sentenced to life. He will be eligible for parole on July 26, 2022.

Sergeant Dryer was a United States Air Force veteran who had served with the Arizona Department of Public Safety for 12 years and had previously served as a police officer in Texas. He is survived by his children.

He was the Arizona Department of Public Safety's first reserve officer to be killed in the line of duty. The Department’s Reserve Officer of the Year Award is named in Sergeant Dryer’s honor.