{"id":238264,"date":"2026-07-08T10:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238264\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T10:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:40:07","slug":"at-funeral-community-to-honor-remember-state-police-trooper-who-died-in-line-of-duty-pennsylvania-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238264\/","title":{"rendered":"At funeral, community to honor, remember State Police Trooper who died in line of duty | Pennsylvania News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUTLER TWP., Pa. – Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Michael Pahira Jr., who died after being hit by a commercial vehicle last week, is being laid to rest Wednesday in Schuylkill County.<\/p>\n

69 News Reporter Sydney Kay is in Butler Township with more on the services planned for\u00a0Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Trooper Pahira Jr.’s funeral services will be held at the North Schuylkill High School on Academy Lane beginning at 8 a.m.<\/p>\n

Multiple firetrucks, state police vehicles, and township vehicles were all seen on Elmer Street and Academy Lane at the entrance of the school as preparations for the funeral begin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Funeral services set for State Trooper killed in Schuylkill County crash<\/a><\/p>\n

The school district posted on its website that it’s honored to assist the state police in honoring the trooper’s life and legacy, as he was a graduate of the district back in 2001.<\/p>\n

Trooper Pahira Jr. tragically lost his life in the line of duty on July 1 after he was hit by a tractor trailer while conducting a commercial vehicle inspection on another truck on I-81 in Cass Township.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security says the out-of-state tractor trailer that hit him was driven by Michael Bon, an illegal immigrant from Haiti.<\/p>\n

Bon was arrested the day of the crash and is facing a slew of charges including homicide by vehicle.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018God rest his soul\u2019: Community gathers to watch procession for fallen state trooper<\/a><\/p>\n

Since then, the law enforcement and surrounding communities have been reflecting on Trooper Pahira’s legacy and honoring his 20 years of service as an officer.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s services begin with visitation at the high school from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., and the funeral will follow at 11 a.m. Both of these are open to the public.<\/p>\n

Heavy traffic is expected in the area, with the county releasing road closures for the procession to run between Lehigh Avenue in Frackville Borough and Lavell Road in Butler Township from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Download the FREE 69News Traffic App<\/a><\/p>\n

Detours from Route 61 will be through Route 924, Main Street, Route 54, and\u00a0Route 61.<\/p>\n

The North Schuylkill School District said due to the magnitude of this event and the extensive planning required, all buildings, fields, and grounds have been closed since Tuesday at 4 p.m. and will remain closed through 4 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

69 News will have coverage of Trooper Pahira’s funeral throughout 69 News at Sunrise and 69 News at Noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUTLER TWP., Pa. – Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Michael Pahira Jr., who died after being hit by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[279,44606,805,28,30,29,7445,7446],"class_list":["post-238264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-berks","tag-featured_top_story","tag-lehighvalley","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-poconos-coal","tag-southeastern-pa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}