Latest news with #QueensSupremeCourt
New York Post
19-05-2025
- New York Post
Maniac who slaughtered beloved FDNY paramedic found guilty of murder in the brutal, random NYC attack
The maniac accused of ruthlessly stabbing beloved FDNY EMS Lt. Alison Russo was found guilty of her murder Monday — following a shocking trial where her relatives and colleagues were forced to relieve the horrific act. Jurors in Queens Supreme Court deliberated for less than an hour before convicting 37-year-old Peter Zisopoulos of second-degree murder and weapon possession for randomly attacking Russo, 61, during her lunch break in September 2022. Russo's relatives celebrated the swift verdict, which came after an approximately week-long trial where Zisopoulos took the stand and chillingly showed virtually no emotion as prosecutors played gruesome footage of the slaying. 'This brings closure for my family,' Craig Fuoco, Russo's brother, said after the jury's decision was delivered. 5 Members of the FDNY filled the hallway following the guilty verdict. James Messerschmidt 'Nothing can erase the pain. Alison's missed every day,' Fuoco said, while flanked by his late sister's FDNY colleagues and her daughter, Danielle Russo. 'We're ready to start healing and keep Alison's memory alive,' he said. '[I'm] happy that I think justice was done. Happy to start to move forward. But Alison will continue to be missed. It's continuing to be difficult to move on, but we'll find a way.' Zisopoulos, of Astoria, will face 25-year-to-life in prison at his sentencing June 30. Video played at trial showed the unhinged attacker knocking over the 9/11 first-responder and knifing her 20 times just a half-block from her stationhouse. Prosecutors said Zisopoulos attacked Russo in broad daylight on Sept. 29, 2022 while she was on duty in her uniform. 5 Alison Russo was a 24-year veteran with the FDNY EMS and assisted as a first responder during 9/11. James Messerschmidt He walked out of his apartment building and rushed at Russo, shoving her to the pavement and getting on top of her — before stabbing her repeatedly with a serrated kitchen knife in the chest and abdomen, including her lungs, liver and heart. A bystander on a scooter tried to intervene, but was chased away by a still-armed Zisopoulos, according to trial evidence. The knife-wielding attacker then circled back — walking around Russo as she lay bleeding out on the sidewalk — and returned to the apartment he shared with his mother, prosecutors said. Another bystander spotted Zisopoulos and ran to a nearby EMS station for help. 5 Peter Zisopoulos stabbed Russo 20 times, including nine times in the heart. Michael Nagle 5 Zisopoulos could face 25 years to life at his sentencing in late June. BRIGITTE STELZER Police arrested Zisopoulos after a brief standoff while he was locked in his apartment. The serrated knife was found by cops in Zisopoulos' front pants pocket, and tested positive for both his and Russo's DNA, prosecutors said. During his stint on the witness stand Friday, Zisopoulos repeatedly provided inconsistent responses about the attack. For instance, he presented three different alibis for what he was doing when Russo was killed, including telling the New York Post during a jailhouse interview in 2023 that he had been busy watching Star Wars at the time. 5 Photos of beloved FDNY EMS Lt. Alison Russo featured at her wake in 2022. 'Alison Russo was a long-time public servant who cared deeply for the people of New York. Our city is still in mourning for a woman who saved countless lives as a member of the FDNY EMS and as a volunteer with her local ambulance company on Long Island,' Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. 'I hope this conviction brings Alison's family, friends and coworkers solace as we continue to grieve her loss.' FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker said that while the verdict will not bring Russo back, 'I pray her family and those who loved her get some sense of closure from this.' 'Russo was a hero and continues to be a source of inspiration and strength to her colleagues and to this Department,' Tucker said in a statement.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Yahoo
Plane in fatal Long Island crash had smoke in cockpit just weeks prior, says surviving daughter in lawsuit: ‘Just fly the damn airplane'
A fatal plane crash on Long Island that left a mother dead and her daughter gravely injured was 'entirely preventable' following a federal crash report citing an electrical short as the likely culprit, an explosive new lawsuit claims. Despite smoke in the flight school plane's cockpit twice just weeks prior, the troubled Long Island outfit refused to perform maintenance on the single-engine plane, the filing in Queens Supreme Court Friday contends. That lax attitude towards upkeep led to the fatal 2023 fire and crash in Lindenhurst that cost the lives of Roma Gupta, 63, and a young pilot — and left daughter Reeva Gupta, 33, motherless, disabled and traumatized, Reeva Gupta said. 'My mother's life was lost, and the pilot's life was lost, and my life is forever changed because somebody wanted to make money,' she told The Post in an exclusive interview. Reeva Gupta is suing 2 BA Pilot NYC and parent company Danny Waizman Aviation — a Long Island flight school at Republic Airport in Farmingdale which operated the plane — for negligence and the wrongful death of her mother. The school's operator, Queens resident Danny Waizman, hung up on a reporter when the 2023 crash was mentioned Monday. 'This tragic and entirely preventable crash was the result of reckless disregard for basic aviation safety,' said attorneys Jordan Strokovsky, Ian Gallo and Mark Shirian. 'The evidence is clear—this was not an accident, but the foreseeable consequence of gross negligence and a failure to prioritize human life over profit. This lawsuit is about exposing these failures and ensuring that no other family has to endure such a devastating loss due to willful negligence.' Reeva Gupta said that after she read the National Transportation Safety Board report — which says a leaky oil line likely caused the crash, and that two recent smoke incidents went ignored — it was 'clear' that Waizman was focused on 'financial gain at the expense of people's livelihood and lives.' 'The person you want the most in the most terrible time, most excruciating pain, the sickest you've ever been in your life,' Reeva Gupta said. 'That person you want is your mom, and that was robbed from me.' Reeva Gupta had purchased a Groupon for an introductory flight lesson — a lifelong dream of the mother-daughter — at the school. But as the flight was on its final approach on March 5, 2023, the plane — a Piper PA-28 — caught fire during flight and crashed, killing Roma Gupta. Reeva Gupta's unnerving final memory of her mother, a longtime physical therapist at a special needs school who was looking forward to retirement as a full-time grandparent, was seeing smoke emerging from underneath her seat in the airplane. The smoke then turned to flames, and as the pilot, 23-year-old Fayzul Chowdhury, made a desperate mayday call, Reeva Gupta scrambled around the small cabin, searching for a fire extinguisher. Her last memory of her mother is hearing her yell: 'Reeva — get out of the plane.' 'The next thing I remember, I woke up in the hospital six weeks later.' While the pilot and Reeva Gupta were saved by a good Samaritan who saw the plane come down, her mother died on impact, she was later told. Reeva Gupta, a former neurosurgery physicians assistant at Mount Sinai West, spent six weeks in an induced coma while doctors treated the second- and third-degree burns covering more than half her body, followed by months inside a burn unit. It wasn't until more than two months after the crash that doctors felt confident she had more than a coin-flip chance of survival. Eventually four of Reeva Gupta's fingers were amputated, and to this day she struggles to walk. The pilot died months later from his injuries. Last October, the NTSB released their final report of the plane crash, establishing that the cause was most likely 'an intermittent electrical short circuit took place involving the fitting on the end of the oil pressure indicating line,' according to an excerpt published in the lawsuit. The short damaged the line so much that oil began to leak and eventually ignite, 'which resulted in an in-flight fire,' the NTSB concluded. Investigators found that the very same plane had prior reports of smoke in the cockpit during flights just two months earlier — incidents that the lawsuit claims were ignored by Waizman. Former instructors told the NTSB that when they reported the smoke to him, Waizman 'brushed it off by jokingly laughing and saying 'don't worry, it's not a big deal.'' 'Shut up and just fly the damn airplane,' one of the instructors alleged Waizman said in response.
