Police in Mourning After Officer Commits Suicide

A Harvard University security guard committed suicide last week, leaving the University's police department in mourning.

John H. Skochlas, 49, was found dead in his home on 24 Prescott St. late Wednesday night, police said.

Skochlas was an 11-year veteran of the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) and worked mostly in the Radcliffe Quadrangle.

"Understandably, this death has affected the members of the department who knew and worked with security officer Skochlas, especially those...who responded to the scene," Riley said.

As is tradition when mourning a fallen colleague, HUPD officers and security guards have black bands taped to their civil service badges.

24 Prescott St. is a University-owned building bordered by the streets of Cambridge, according to Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn.

Cambridge police responded to a call around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.

Harvard's dispatchers, monitoring the Cambridge police frequency, also sent a unit to investigate.

Skochlas' body was found in his apartment. It is not known if anyone was with him.

On Friday, the state medical examiner's office ruled the death a suicide.

Skochlas' colleagues said the guard did not appear depressed in the weeks before his death.

Harvard security officers said the death was a blow to morale.

"It's very discouraging for people," said one security guard speaking who didn't want to give his name.

Another HUPD employee who had spoken with Skochlas in the days before his death, said "[He] was a very good guy. He was great to work with."

The employee, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the department has given them information about on-the-job counseling in the wake of Skochlas' death.

"The University has counseling programs for our employees, and these are supplemented...by trained staff from other public safety agencies whose experience in trauma cases exceeds our own," Riley wrote.

But, the guard said, with the deaths of three guards within the past year, department moral is low.

"We're pretty shaken up," he said.

The latest death comes only a little more than a month after John M. Weisenmiller, a guard in Agassiz House, collapsed on the job of a heart attack and later died.

Wrinn said deaths like these affect the entire University staff community.

"Like all offices, it's a collection of human beings. When something like this happens, it affects on you on a personal basis," he said.