Trooper Martin Mack III, killed in I-95 crash, remembered at funeral as loving husband and father

Martin Mack III was driven by a sense of duty.

Following in the footsteps of his father, a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, he joined the National Guard. Following a lifelong dream, he became a Pennsylvania State Police trooper, serving Philadelphia and its surrounding counties in Troop K.

And he was a husband and father to two young girls.

Late Thursday morning, Stephanie Mack, his wife, stood at the altar at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, looking out at pews filled with Mack’s fellow troopers and closest friends. There, in the church named after the patron saint of police and military, she remembered her best friend as a loving father who lived for his daughters.

“The girls were lucky to have you, even if their time was cut too short. You were one hell of a man, and I cannot begin to express how much I will miss you. How much your squad will miss you. Rest easy, handsome,” she said

Mack’s funeral came little more than a week after the 33-year-old trooper, along with Trooper Branden T. Sisca, 29, and Allentown resident Reyes Rivera, 28, died in a crash on I-95 in Philadelphia. Although Mack and his family were not parishioners at the church, it was chosen to accommodate a large crowd.

Thousands of mourners — Mack’s family and friends, fellow law enforcement, military personnel, and grateful civilians — gathered under a gray sky to pay their final respects. Cadres of police officers from across New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — clad in full regalia — joined the Pennsylvania troopers marching solemnly into the church, waves of gray with the state emblem on their shoulders. They will do the same again on Saturday in Collegeville, for Sisca’s funeral.

» READ MORE: On I-95, four lives converged in a crash that left three dead and a young person facing steep consequences

Inside the church, the Rev. Dennis Mooney, the pastor at St. Mark’s Church in Bristol where the Mack family are parishioners, celebrated a funeral Mass and remembered Mack and the sacrifice he made.

“No one has greater love than this. To lay one’s life down for their fellow man,” said Mooney.

Around 12:45 a.m. March 21, Mack and Sisca were dispatched to assist a man walking on the southbound highway near Lincoln Financial Field, officials previously said. As the troopers were trying to assist the man, Jayana Webb, 21, attempted to pass the parked police SUV while driving at a high speed, fatally striking all three men.

The impact of the crash threw the victims over the median. Witnesses attempted to perform CPR, but all three were pronounced dead on the scene. Webb stopped her vehicle in the shoulder nearby and remained on scene, officials said.

Webb is charged with three counts of third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle, and DUI-related crimes.

» READ MORE: Woman, 21, charged in crash that killed two state troopers and a civilian on I-95

Within the walls of the church, the memories were not of Mack’s death, but of his life as a supportive husband, loyal friend, and devoted father. Standing at the altar, Mack’s wife remembered a best friend that turned into the love of her life, her first declaration slipping out like a poorly kept secret one day.

“It was supposed to be the ‘I love you’ you tell your friends,” she wistfully recalled. “But it wasn’t. I meant it.”

The couple met at Albright College, and opposites attracted, said Delaware State Police Cpl. Paul LaPlaca, Mack’s best friend for 15 years. Mack was a man of few words. Stephanie was anything but.

“Everyone will keep your memory the way they need to,” Stephanie Mack said. “I will remember my hero as an amazing father, my best friend, and my filter. My sounding board. My husband.”

As family looked on, a priest blessed Mack’s ebony casket with incense. Six Pennsylvania State Police troopers — three on each side — draped the American flag on the casket of their fallen colleague.

In rhythmic steps, Pennsylvania state troopers marched alongside Mack’s casket, exiting the church surrounded by people waiting to say goodbye. As Stephanie and their two daughters looked on, Mack’s casket was loaded into a hearse and taken in a long procession to Our Lady of Grace Cemetery in Langhorne.

“Rest easy brother,” said LaPlaca, as he stepped down from the altar. “We got the watch from here.”