Funeral planned today for rookie trooper killed in crash
TRENTON -- Eli McCarson was the kind of state trooper who kept an even keel on every call, one of his former squad mates recalled.
"Look, in certain circumstances, you have to do what's needed," said Trooper Anthony Parillo, who graduated from the State Police academy with McCarson. "But he'd make small talk with people he just arrested. He was charismatic. He had a gift. He just never got angry, ever."
McCarson was on patrol in tiny Quinton Township in Salem County last Thursday when his troop car struck a utility pole near Route 49. He was the second on-duty member of the State Police to die on the road in 2015 -- the worst year for division fatalities, officials said, in decades.
McCarson's family will lay the trooper to rest on Wednesday after a funeral at Rowan University in Glassboro. Gov. Chris Christie, calling McCarson a "brave and loyal hero," ordered flags in New Jersey at half staff, and officials in McCarson's hometown of Mantua lowered the flag at their municipal building Tuesday evening in his honor.
A viewing will be held from 9 to 11:30 a.m., followed by a service at noon in the university's Pfleeger Concert Hall.
Friends and family described McCarson, 30, as the selfless older brother in a family of five boys raised on a sprawling piece of property in Gloucester County.
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He loved God and his family, they said, and was his youngest brother's punk band's biggest fan. He also loved Spiderman, and "Star Wars" -- he had tickets to see the newest film the day of the crash, his brother said -- and he always wanted to be a trooper.
"He was turned down from the State Police twice," his brother, Nate McCarson, said. "Then on his third try, he finished near the top of his class."
Eli McCarson, newly married, had just graduated the academy in February. Parillo sat right behind him in class.
"With everything going on in the academy, you don't have time to get close to anybody," Parillo said in an interview. "But we ended up in the same squad -- that's when we became close. It was literally me and him, learning together."
The two would ride midnight shifts out of the Port Norris barracks in Cumberland County, Parillo said, moving between medical assistance calls and domestic violence incidents, covering a hundred miles of road in a night.
They talked about family. They talked about life. They talked about football -- the greatest source of tension in the squad car.
"He loved the Eagles," Parillo said. "I'm a Giants fan. Probably the only thing me and him ever disagreed on."
Mostly, Parillo said, McCarson talked about his wife, Jordan, whom he married in September.
"He was always with her," Parillo said. "All his stories revolved around her."
Nate McCarson, two years younger than his brother, said Eli and Jordan met when the boys were working as life guards at Lake Hurff in Sewell.
"Every time they'd walk into a room, you just saw how much they loved each other," Nate McCarson said. "Both total goofballs, but so loving and caring."
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A State Police spokesman said Tuesday evening that the cause of the crash, which occurred on Thursday around 10:45 a.m. after McCarson responded to a domestic dispute call, is still under investigation. Police say McCarson went off the right side of the road and struck an electric utility pole.
Rescuers worked to remove him from the car, where McCarson had been trapped when the doors jammed. He was taken to the Memorial Hospital of Salem County, where he died from his injuries around noon. His exact cause of death had not been determined.
Officials suggested the rain, which was heavy at times that day, may have contributed to the crash.
"Driving is our life," State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said in an interview this week. "I come to work (in a) nice office. Their office is the inside of that car."
In May, Trooper Anthony Raspa, 24, was killed when his patrol car struck a deer on Interstate 195 in Monmouth County. Three weeks later, Trooper Glenny Almonte, 28, was killed in an off-duty crash in Bergen County.
Calling those deaths "the worst thing that can happen to an organization," the colonel said troopers receive "very robust training" in road safety.
"Still, we realize the nature of the business that we're in," Fuentes said. "Sometimes things go wrong when you're trying to safeguard the public."
Parillo said that while McCarson -- who later transferred to the Woodstown station -- cared about the people he served, he also cared about his fellow troopers. He recalled being bitten by a dog on a call and requesting assistance. Not only was McCarson the first trooper to show up, Parillo said, he insisted on driving him to the hospital.
"He sat in the emergency room three hours, four hours, until I got out, just hanging out with me," Parillo said.
"He's just rock solid," the trooper added, still referring to his friend in the present tense.
S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.