A 27-year-old Dallas Police officer, on the force for two years, died after he was struck by a car while directing traffic after a previous accident on Central Expressway before dawn Saturday.

Officer Mitchell Penton leaves behind a wife who is pregnant with their first child, Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata told KXAS.

Mata was Penton’s sergeant in the DPD Northeast Division.

“He exhibited what we want in the future of what we want to see in this department,” Mata told the TV station. “And to see a life and a career and a future cut so short … this did not have to happen.”

Penton was helping to block traffic in the northbound lanes on U.S. 75 at Walnut Hill Lane at about 1:45 a.m. when the driver of a black Kia Forte slammed into Penton’s squad car, and the police car hit Penton.

Police say the driver of the Kia was 32-year-old Phillip Mabry, who has been charged with intoxication manslaughter of a police officer and intoxication assault because Mabry’s 29-year-old passenger was taken to the hospital for cuts to her face resulting from the crash.