A Dallas police officer with one year experience on the job died early Saturday after a suspected drunk driver struck him as he was standing outside of the scene of an earlier crash, the department announced.
Mitchell Penton, who joined the department in February 2019, was identified on Saturday as the officer. He was taken to Baylor Hospital after the crash, where he died, police said in a news release.
The driver, 32-year-old Phillip Mabry, was arrested on charges of intoxication manslaughter on a police officer and intoxication assault, in regard to the woman who was in the car with him, according to the news release. The woman was taken to a hospital with trauma to her chest area, police said, and a laceration on her face.
Medical staff saw Mabry and released him, police said.
Chief Eddie Garcia said in a tweet Saturday morning, “Our department is once again mourning, but we are heartened by the strength of his family. Godspeed my brother.”
He said in a later news release, “This young officer had such a bright future ahead of him.”
“We ask that the community join us as we pray for the officer’s family,” Garcia said. “We would also like to extend that prayer to the brave men and women of this great department.”
Penton was blocking off the scene of a crash in north Dallas around 1:45 a.m. in the northbound lanes of North Central Expressway at Walnut Hill Lane, police said. He was standing outside of his marked patrol car, police said, which had its emergency lights flashing.
A four-door Kia Forte, traveling at a high rate of speed, crashed into the back of Penton’s patrol car, which caused the patrol car to hit him, police said.
Investigators interviewed the woman who was in the car with the man on Saturday morning.
An video tweeted by Garcia on Saturday morning showed a line of officers standing outside of a hospital, lifting their right arms to their foreheads in military salutes, as the officer’s body was taken away on a stretcher. The stretcher was draped in an American flag.
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