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Title: Indiana cop on DUI beat loses daughter to alleged drunk driver: ‘The irony is horrific’
Source:
NY Daily News
URL Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat ... drunk-driver-article-1.2356929
Published: Sep 11, 2015
Author: Melissa Chan
Post Date: 2015-09-11 19:31:58 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1842
Comments: 15
An Indianapolis police officer who has spent most of his long career stopping drunk drivers lost his daughter to an allegedly impaired motorist in a crash that will likely haunt him forever, his family said. Dan Shragal, 48, has made almost 4,000 DUI arrests during his 25-year tenure at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. His 22-year-old daughter, Kirstin Burton, was killed in a drunk-driving accident two weeks ago. "The irony is horrific," Burton's stepmother Rachel Shragal told the Daily News. "It's been very, very difficult for Dan. He's said several times that he's the one he couldn't get. He couldn't stop him and he took away his daughter." Shragal, who has been assigned full-time to IMPD's dedicated DUI unit for the last decade, was working a drunk-driving checkpoint on Aug. 22 when he got a devastating call from Burton's mother. "Through the sobbing and the screaming, she got out that Kirstin was dead," Shragal told Fox 59. Indianapolis police officer Dan Shragal lost his daughter to a suspected drunk driver after spending most of his career on the DUI unit. Burton, a new mother who had her 14-month-old son Orion in the backseat, was struck by a pickup truck driven by a suspected drunk driver in Dayton, Ohio about 9 p.m. Her car careened into a tree, killing her instantly and critically injuring her son, Rachel Shragal said. Moments before, Dan Shragal unknowingly had his last conversation with his daughter on the phone. "I'm blessed that the last words I said to my daughter were, 'I love you, sunshine,' and she said, 'I love you too, daddy.' That is the last time I spoke to her," he told Fox. Kirstin Burton, 22, was killed in a suspected drunk-driving crash. She leaves behind a 14-month-old son. The devastated father had spent 15 years working as a beat cop before he was moved to the DUI unit. He had won several awards for the number of arrests he had under his belt and took an average of three drunk drivers off the road each night, his wife said. Dan Shragal returned to work Tuesday after burying his daughter a week before, but he hasn't yet summoned the strength to work checkpoints yet. "He wants to return very, very much, but right now it's very hard for him to think about doing that," his wife of eight years said. "It's going to bring back memories that are still very fresh for him. It's still very raw for him." Burton was remembered as a selfless mother, daughter and friend who put others' feelings over her own. An hour before the fatal wreck, she posted a powerful video on Periscope talking about how a stranger's words touched her deeply. "How can you impact someone's day or life?" she says. "I was thinking about something someone said to me months and months ago and it hit me really hard." "I've been thinking about it because it relates to my life now," she continues. "And at the time it didn't really do anything for me. I was like, 'OK.' But it impacted me and (the words) really stuck with me." Indianapolis police officer Dan Shragal lost his daughter to a suspected drunk driver after spending most of his career on the DUI unit. The video was shown to Dan Shragal and his wife shortly after her death. "It raised goose bumps for me," Rachel Shragal said. "It was so hard to hear her voice and to see her, even though it was such a positive message she was giving." The footage was played at Burton's funeral on Aug. 31. "That was her whole heart coming out in that," her stepmother said. 
Burton gave birth to her first son, Orion, a little more than a year ago. She's pictured here with her husband Andrew. 
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#1. To: cranky (#0)
IMHO,if you kill someone while driving impaired on either alcohol or any other drugs,manslaughter and serious time should be where the punishment begins,and then only if it is your first offense. If you have been arrested for DUI before,1st degree murder.
#2. To: sneakypete (#1)
DUIs used to be quite the cash cow for the states (pre MADD). I can recall reading of drunk drivers with twenty and thirty convictions that went on to kill other drivers before they were finally locked up. One in particular, a pickup truck that hit a school bus back east on a highway a couple or three decades ago.
Killing while DUI is murder. Murderers should executed.
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Replies to Comment # 1. If you have been arrested for DUI before,1st degree murder.
#3. To: sneakypete (#1)
If you have been arrested for DUI before,1st degree murder.
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