The first of the funerals for two Pennsylvania state troopers killed by a suspected drunken driver as they tried to help someone off a Philadelphia highway took place on Thursday.
A public funeral for Trooper Martin F. Mack III was held at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Michael the Archangel Church at 66 Levittown Parkway. A procession accompanied Mack’s body to the Our Lady of Grace Cemetery for a public burial.
The funeral followed an emotional viewing Wednesday at Wade Funeral Home in Bristol, Pennsylvania.
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Meanwhile, a public viewing for the second trooper killed in the wreck on Interstate 95 will be held Friday.
The viewing for Branden T. Sisca, 29, is scheduled between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. and then again between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Boyd-Horrox-Givnish Funeral Home at 200 W. Germantown Pike, according to the PSP.
Sisca’s funeral will be held at 12 p.m. Saturday at Perkiomen Valley High School at 509 Gravel Pike. It will also be open to the public, the PSP said.
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Mack and Sisca died as they tried to help 28-year-old Reyes Rivera Olivera, who was walking along I-95 in the predawn hours of March 21.
The woman charged with being behind the wheel of the car that struck and killed all three men is Jayana Webb. She is charged with a host of crimes, including third-degree murder and homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence.
Sources told NBC10 that Mack and Sisca had just pulled over Webb when they received a call about a man who was walking on the highway. They then left Webb as they responded to the man, later identified as Oliveras.
As they tried to get him into their vehicle, a driver, who officials identified as Webb, drove up to the scene and tried to use the shoulder of the highway to get around them.
Webb hit all three men so hard that they were launched from the southbound lanes into the northbound lanes of the interstate, police said.
During her arraignment, the Philadelphia District Attorney's office said that after hearing her Miranda rights, Webb told officers that she had been drinking “strawberry Henny” – referring to Hennessy Cognac – prior to the wreck.
Trooper Mack III enlisted in state police in November 2014, the PSP said. Trooper Sisca had just enlisted in February 2021.
Both troopers spent their careers assigned to the Patrol Section of Troop K, which covers Philadelphia, state police said.
Mack was a 2006 graduate of Monsignor Bonner High school and Albright University in Reading. He was married with two children and lived in Bristol Township, Bucks County.
Sisca was a graduate of West Chester University in 2014. He had recently graduated from the State Police Academy.
Sisca also was trained as an EMT and had served with the West Chester Fire Department and Good Fellowship Ambulance Company. At the time of his death, he was fire chief for the Trappe Fire Company No. 1.
