Suspect Peter Zisopoulos charged with murder in stabbing of FDNY Lt. Alison Russo-Elling
The maniac who allegedly killed veteran FDNY Lt. Alison Russo-Elling in an unprovoked attack was charged with her murder Friday and hauled off to Queens court in shackles after apparently admitting to the crime, police said.
Peter Zisopoulos, 34, also faces a weapon possession charge in connection with the senseless attack on the 61-year-old paramedic, who was stabbed 19 times at 20th Avenue and 41st Street in Astoria around 2:20 p.m. Thursday, police said.
Queens prosecutors wrote in his criminal complaint that “admissions of the defendant’’ help show he killed Russo-Elling.
On Friday afternoon, Zisopoulous was stone-faced and silent as he was escorted out of the 114th Precinct in Queens dressed in a white Tyvec suit with cuffs around his feet and hands.
He was slated to be arraigned in Queens Criminal Court late Friday, where dozens of first responders packed the courtroom to show their support for Russo-Elling.
“We’re here to send a message to the court that we don’t want this man back on the streets. The only justice is if he stays in jail for the rest of his life because he’s a murderer,” Vincent Variale, the president of the Uniformed EMS Officers Union, told The Post.
“He’s not insane. He stabbed a hero, and he knew that he did wrong because he ran away after he did it. That tells me he understood what he did was wrong.”
Brooklyn-based EMT Patrick Creedence said he came to court to show Russo-Elling’s family they’re not alone.
“It shows her family that she’s not going to be forgotten, that we are not going to let this go and that we are going to support them all the way until this is concluded by hopefully him being convicted and sentenced to life,” the 52-year-old said.
The hearing was ultimately postponed after Zisopoulos was transported to the hospital for an evaluation, prosecutors said.
The long-time paramedic was on her lunch break Thursday afternoon when Zisopoulos suddenly tore after her, slammed her to the ground, mounted her and relentlessly stabbed her, according to police sources and sickening video of the deadly attack.
A witness who’d been driving by on a scooter confronted the madman, but he snarled, “F–k you, f–k you!” before stepping away from his victim and charging at the man while still holding the bloodied knife, police sources said.
The victim — whose injuries included a deep, lethal wound to the chest — was left unresponsive on the ground after her callous attacker ran off, according to sources and the video.
The 25-year veteran, who was a World Trade Center responder on Sept. 11, 2001, was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition but could not be saved, police said.
Zisopoulos was busted after he was chased by a good Samaritan and barricaded himself inside his nearby apartment, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said Thursday.
Police were able to talk him down and take him into custody on the third floor of the apartment.
FDNY Acting Commissioner Laura Kavanagh called Russo’s death a “barbaric and completely unprovoked attack.”
“At this point in the investigation there doesn’t appear to have been any prior contact between them,” an FDNY source later explained. “He just walked toward her, sped up and then stabbed her to death.”
Russo-Elling “was about six or seven months away from retirement,” Vincent Variale, president of Local 3621, told reporters outside the hospital where the paramedic succumbed to her injuries. “She was talking about it.”
“We lost one of our heroes,” Mayor Eric Adams said during a press briefing.
Russo-Elling worked out of Station 49 in Astoria and lived on Long Island.
She joined the FDNY as an EMT in March 1998 and was promoted to a paramedic in 2002 before becoming a lieutenant in 2016.
Paramedics have a higher level of education than EMTs and are able to perform more complex procedures, including administering medication to patients and inserting IV lines.
Russo-Elling worked out of numerous EMS stations through her career, including Station 20, Station 17, Station 16, Station 45, Queens Tactical Response Group and Station 49.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore, Steven Vago and Gabrielle Fonrouge
