A 24-year-old illegal immigrant was charged Monday in the death of a St. Louis police officer after hitting the officer with his car, according to police. The suspect, Ramon A. Chavez-Rodriguez, was intoxicated when police arrested him and was on probation for beating a woman he lived with.
Chavez-Rodriguez was driving 71 mph—16 mph over the speed limit—when he struck St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Officer David Lee, who was responding to a separate crash, police said. The 18-year police veteran died hours later. A blood test two hours after the accident showed Chavez-Rodriguez’s blood alcohol level was 0.10 percent—exceeding Missouri’s legal limit of 0.08 percent.
"Our community has lost a great police officer," St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Tracy said at a press conference Monday afternoon. "My top priority is ensuring justice is served for my officer who was killed in a line of duty and my end supporting my officers who are grieving and the family that has lost a husband and a father."
At a news conference Sunday evening, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department commander Paul Lauer said Lee was "the nicest guy who would do anything for you."
Chavez-Rodriguez was charged with DWI resulting in the death of law enforcement personnel, speeding, and driving without a valid license. Tracy said Chavez-Rodriguez, a Honduran national, remains jailed without bond and that federal authorities were handling his immigration status. He was already scheduled for an October hearing on the issue before the accident, according to St. Louis circuit attorney Gabriel Gore.
Chavez-Rodriguez was on a five-year probation for a 2020 felony domestic assault conviction and DWI case in St. Charles County, Mo., court records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon showed. He broke through the door of the home he shared with a woman, then strangled, punched, and kicked her, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. His probation prohibited Chavez-Rodriguez from both drinking and driving and barred him from entering establishments where alcohol was the main item for sale.
Lee was not the first police officer killed in the line of duty by an illegal immigrant this year. In March, an intoxicated illegal immigrant from Mexico crashed his speeding SUV into Washington State Trooper Christopher Gadd’s patrol car, killing the officer. Earlier, in 2022, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mike Hartwick was killed after an illegal immigrant without a driver’s license struck him before speeding off.