Funeral services set for slain FDNY paramedic Alison Russo of Huntington
Emergency medical service Lt. Alison Russo, a 24-year-veteran of the FDNY, was fatally stabbed Thursday in Queens. Credit: FDNY
A three-day "celebration of life” is being planned for next week to memorialize the FDNY paramedic from Huntington who was stabbed to death in Queens while grabbing lunch.
The wake for the paramedic, emergency medical service Lt. Alison Russo, is Monday and Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Commack Abbey funeral home, 96 Commack Rd. in Commack, according to an FDNY news release. The funeral, to be streamed on nyc.gov/FDNY, is Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Blvd. in Brookville, the release said.
The center is on the LIU Post campus. The center's concert hall seats about 2,000 people, and its theater about 500, according to the center's website.
FDNY and emergency medical service personnel are coming by on Monday to help plan the funeral, Vin Guiliano, who works at the center's box office, said Saturday afternoon.
Russo, 61, who had worked in the job for 24 years, was stabbed “numerous times” Thursday afternoon in front of 40-19 20th Ave. in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens — around the corner from Station 49, where she was assigned — as she went to get food, according to the NYPD and a charging document.
Peter Zisopoulos, 34, of nearby 41st Street, has been charged with second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He was scheduled for arraignment at Queens Criminal Court Friday afternoon but the proceeding was delayed so he could undergo a psychiatric exam, according to the court. In an email Saturday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Queens district attorney's office said there was no estimate for when the arraignment would happen.
No motive for the killing has been disclosed, although the charging document says he made "statements and admissions." Hours after the stabbing, the NYPD chief of detectives said eyewitnesses chased Zisopoulos from the scene to his apartment, where he had barricaded himself before being coaxed out by police hostage negotiators.
Russo's death was the result of stab wounds to the chest and injuries to her heart, Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said Friday.
Russo, who started with the FDNY in 1998, had been a World Trade Center first responder, as well as a longtime volunteer on the Huntington Community First Aid Squad.
Friends said she had discussed retiring soon — being a few months short of 25 years, after which she would have been eligible to receive her pension.
Her daughter, Danielle Fuoco of Wading River, said: "She died doing what she loved."
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
