Funeral for officer killed in wrong-way crash draws hundreds
LIGONIER – A Western Pennsylvania police officer killed in a wrong-way crash was a friend, a brother, a firefighter and the face of his community, loved ones said Saturday at his funeral.
Hundreds of people, including many fellow officers, gathered to say goodbye to 40-year-old Lt. Eric Eslary. The Ligonier Township officer was killed early Tuesday when a van collided head-on with his patrol SUV on Route 30.
“There is a hole in my heart that can’t be filled,” said Latrobe K-9 Officer Bob Derk, who went to high school and the police academy with Eslary.
Many attending the service at Holy Trinity Catholic Church dabbed their eyes as speakers remembered the 17-year veteran, who established the township’s K-9 unit and was a volunteer firefighter in Wilpen.
“It’s such a tragedy. This is unbelievable,” said the Rev. Robert Cummings of Covenant Presbyterian Church. “A father and a husband should come home. A police officer in a small community should always come home.”
Hundreds of officers lining the driveway to the church stood at attention as a procession arrived. It was led by a color guard and Pittsburgh Police Emerald Society Pipes and Drums and followed by Ligonier’s police fleet and then motorcycles, cruisers and SUVs from all over the region. Fire trucks from around the region brought up the rear.
Dave Johnson, a hospital employee who said he knew Eslary well and had hunted with him, joined the hundreds of community members who lined the sidewalk near the church.
“It shows he was loved” by “the young, the old and the middle,” Johnson said.
Cummings told mourners that no one could do what Eslary did without love – and not just love of a job.
“Life is more like it,” he said. “It’s something that is always a part of you. And the only way you live it is because you love what you do. … For 17 years, Eric loved what he did.”
Eslary is survived by his wife, Mary Beth, a county 911 dispatcher, and six children.
No charges have been filed in the crash, but police have said they are screening the blood of the driver of van. A passenger said he and the driver had been drinking before the crash.