NEW YORK — A longtime emergency providers worker who was killed in an unprovoked stabbing in New York City was planning to retire in a couple of months and spend extra time together with her household, the pinnacle of her union stated.
Lt. Alison Russo-Elling was about six or seven months away from retirement, Vincent Variale, president of the uniformed EMS officers union, instructed reporters outdoors the hospital the place Russo-Elling died of her accidents Thursday.
Police introduced Friday that Peter Zisopoulos, 34, was being charged with homicide and prison possession of a weapon in the deadly stabbing of Russo-Elling, a virtually 25-year veteran of town’s hearth division who was among the many first responders to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Russo-Elling was on obligation when she was stabbed Thursday afternoon close to her station in the Astoria part of Queens, authorities stated.
The 61-year-old Russo-Elling was heading to a nook retailer to get one thing to eat when Zisopoulos allegedly stabbed her a number of occasions, police stated. She was taken to a close-by hospital, the place she was pronounced useless.
Zisopoulos ran to his house and locked himself inside, police stated. He was arrested after he was finally talked into popping out. It wasn’t clear if he had an lawyer who might touch upon the fees towards him.
The motive for the stabbing is beneath investigation.
Russo-Elling joined the fireplace division as an EMT in March 1998 and was promoted to paramedic in 2002 earlier than changing into a lieutenant in 2016.
A mom and grandmother, Russo-Elling lived in Huntington on Long Island and had volunteered with the native ambulance corps there, in keeping with the Daily News.
Variale, the union president, instructed the New York Post that he had simply spoken to Russo-Elling final week. “Alison was the sweetest, kindest person you’ve ever met,” Variale stated. “She was also very brave.”
Another colleague, EMS Capt. Mike Dadonna, instructed the Post that Russo-Elling “always greeted you with a smile. No matter what was going on, she had a smile.”
Acting Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, who joined Mayor Eric Adams and other officials at a news conference Thursday, said Russo-Elling was cited multiple times for bravery and life-saving work.
“And she was absolutely beloved on this job,” Kavanagh said.
Adams, a former police officer whose service in uniform overlapped with Russo-Elling’s, said he is very familiar with the work that EMS workers perform.
“Every day, they do their job in a manner in which many of us don’t realize how dangerous it is,” Adams stated. “She was working for this city. She paid the ultimate sacrifice because of that.”