Kentucky officer killed when police cruiser was hit by a drunk driver

Christmas Eve ended on a tragic note for the family of a police officer in Kentucky. She was struck and killed by a driver who was allegedly under the influence.

At the time of the incident, the policewoman was conducting a traffic stop.

Detective Deidre “Dee Dee” Mengedoht, 32, was a Kentucky detective who was also the mother of a young son. She was killed on Monday when her police cruiser was struck by a semi-truck.

According to the Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad, the driver of the truck has since been charged with murder. Conrad shared this information during a press conference on Monday night.

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. At the time of the incident, Mengedoht was conducting a traffic stop in the right-hand lane on Interstate 64 in the afternoon.

She was inside her police cruiser with her emergency lights. Suddenly, the truck crashed into her from behind, according to the police chief.

It’s alleged that the driver was impaired when the accident occurred. Unfortunately, the impact caused Mengedoht’s car to catch fire and she died.

The police arrested the truck’s driver, Roger D. Burdette, 60. He was charged with murder and operating a vehicle under the influence.

An arrest citation claimed that Burdette admitted to taking multiple prescription drugs. It also stated that he “made no attempt to avoid collision with the police vehicle.”

Burdette is an employee of the local Metropolitan Sewer Department and was driving one of their semi trucks at the time of the accident. The citation further stated that the suspect was allegedly unable to maintain his balance during field sobriety tests.

Mengedoht had been on the force for more than seven years. The mourning police chief said: “I can’t imagine what her family is going through, today of all days.”

He shared that the policewoman “gave her life serving the community” and “would fight fiercely to seek justice for victims whose cases she was investigating.” The suspect was booked into Jefferson County Corrections.

He’s scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday at 9 a.m. In recent news in Kentucky, Allen Lewis, 31, is an inmate who escaped from prison this month by complaining to an officer that his handcuffs were too tight.

When one of his handcuffs was released, Lewis got away. Greenup County Jailer Mike Worthington explained:

"We got a dog from Boyd County ... searching where we had lost the tracks and they started tracking him, and we tried to cut off all his avenues.”

The suspect managed to get to Highway 64 and decided to hitchhike. A driver, who happened to be a campus police officer at Morehead State University, stopped but noticed the hanging handcuffs.

The security ended up giving Lewis a ride back to prison. At the time of his escape, the suspect had actually completed his sentence at the Greenup County Detention Center.

He was being transported to face charges in another county.