The rookie police officer was killed when his car crashed into a guard rail on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick on Dec. 29.
SPRING LAKE -- A rookie off-duty Port Authority police officer killed when his car smashed into a guard rail on the New Jersey Turnpike was mourned Saturday as a young man who was "a force of good" in a world that he viewed with hope and optimism.
St. Catharine's R.C. Church in Spring Lake was filled with hundreds of people who paid their last respects to Officer Eamonn Mautone, who family and friends described as a prankster who also served as a role model.
Mautone, 25, joined the Port Authority Police Department in August 2014 and was assigned to the World Trade Center Freedom Tower in New York City, a post he was proud to hold, said the Rev. Harold Cullen, who presided over the funeral. Authorities have not ruled out rainy conditions as contributing to his car accident in East Brunswick.
"When he found the family of the Port Authority Police Department, he felt he was home. He just love being part of that family, a... force which is now so deeply revered in the lives and the hearts of everybody in this country since 9/11," Cullen said to the crowd, which included an overflow of police officers watching the mass in the church basement.
Thirty-seven Port Authority police officers died in the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.
Port Authority cop killed in crash loved protecting Freedom Tower, family says
Among the attendees were Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, Port Authority Public Safety Superintendent Michael Fedorko, Chief Security Officer Thomas Belfiore, Deputy Public Safety Superintendent Edward Cetnar and Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Mautone's parents, Edmond and Bridget Mautone, were presented with an American flag that flew over the World Trade Center on New Year's Eve, two days after their oldest child's death.
His brothers Brendan and Sean Mautone struggled through a liturgical reading and often hugged and consoled each other during the 90-minute mass.
"I can't get over how this young lad has touched the lives and hearts of so many people," said Cullen, who knows the Mautone family through their membership in the Ocean County Emerald Society Pipes and Drums. Mautone, who lived in Jackson for nearly all his life, played bagpipes since he was 12.
Cullen reminded mourners about Mautone's "warm smile and embrace, his unflappable sense of optimism and cheerfulness."
"Eamonn always loved and enjoyed whatever he was doing. He just exuded it."
That's the same mentality he took to his new job with the Port Authority, Cullen said.
"There's only one thing that can make a real difference to all of us who are left behind," Cullen said. "And that is the faith that we share together."
That faith, Cullen said, it that while death is an ending in one respect, it's the beginning of a "glorious and happy" new chapter for Mautone.
The Pipes and Drums corps escorted the funeral procession of vehicles to and from St. Catharine's . And more than 100 Port Authority police officers lined the road beside the church and stood at attention as the hearse carrying Mautone's casket passed by.
He left the mourners with a suggestion on how to go on with their lives.
"Think about what Eamonn might say to you if he could talk to you today from where he is now," Cullen said. "I know he would say 'wherever you are in life, live life to the fullest. Hold on to the people in your life who love you and who you love. Don't settle for what's comfortable and easy. Stretch your physical and your spiritual horizons.'"
MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.