A veteran paramedic with the New York Fire Department who helped respond to the 9/11 terror attacks was killed in a daytime stabbing while on duty.
Allison Russo-Ealing, 61, was walking to an FDNY building in Astoria on Thursday when she was attacked near the intersection of 20th Avenue and Steinway Street at about 2.15pm, police said.
The emergency service worker sustained multiple stab wounds and according to The New York Times, was taken to Mount Sinai Queens Hospital, where she died of her injuries.
A 34-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack and was later identified as Peter Zisopoulos, who CBS New York reported was undergoing a mental health screening after being charged with murder.
He was taken into custody after barricading himself inside his third-floor apartment and was talked out of the address by a hostage negotiating team and emergency service unit, police were reported as saying. It was unclear if he had a lawyer or had enetered any plea on Friday however.
Speaking at a news conference, the city’s mayor said Ms Russo-Ealing was “one of our heroes” who had responded to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.
“We lost one of our heroes, she provided a service to the city for over 24 years, her assailant has been apprehended and will be held accountable for his actions,” said the Democrat.
“Our hearts go out to her family, her colleagues and the city of New York. She was working for this city. She paid for ultimate sacrifice because of that.”
The attack was described as being a sign of “the latest consequence of the violence that we relentlessly fight in our city” by New York police commissioner Keechant L Sewell, with Ms Russo-Ealing’s death the second such EMT fatality since 2017.
“This deadly, senseless, broad-daylight attack on an EMT. member is a direct assault on our society,” Ms Sewell said. “It is the latest consequence of the violence that we relentlessly fight in our city. We can never tolerate this violence It has to and will be stopped.”
As the Times reported, the death of the EMT worker was the second in five years after 44-year-old Yadira Arroyo was killed in 2017 in the Bronx neighbourhood.
Flags will be flown at half mast across New York City as a tribute on Friday.
