By Sheetal Banchariya, John Annese
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The man accused of murdering EMS Lt. Alison Russo “had the desire to kill” when he stabbed her in full view of witnesses and surveillance cameras just steps from her Queens FDNY stationhouse, prosecutors told jurors at the start of the suspect’s trial Monday.
“At 61 years old, with more than 20 years on the job, [Russo] could have retired but she chose to keep working. She chose to keep serving her community,” Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Selkowe said in his opening argument at the trial of Peter Zisopoulos in Queens Criminal Court.
“She had no way of knowing that that day, Sept. 29, 2022. would be the last day that she would ever have the opportunity to report for duty.”
Russo was on duty near her stationhouse in Astoria when Zisopoulos, then 34, allegedly ambushed her and repeatedly stabbed her. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died.
On Monday, FDNY members watched as Zisopoulos stood trial for murder and weapon possession charges. He faces 25 years to life if convicted.
“Twenty times, he plunged the blade of his knife into her chest. He cut through her flesh, cut through her rib cage and cut through her vital organs,” Selkowe said. “He punctured her right lung. He punctured her left lung. He punctured her heart. He punctured her liver. Twenty times, stabbed her in broad daylight on a public street in front of witnesses and under the watch of surveillance cameras.”
“He had the desire to kill,” he added. “He had the intent to kill.”
Zisopoulos’ mental health status has been the subject of several court hearings over the past three years, with Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant deeming him unfit to participate in his defense in June 2023. He was found fit again that October and again last week, despite findings by two court-appointed medical experts.
Pandit-Durant determined that he appeared to meet the legal standard for mental competence since he understood the details of the trial proceedings, Newsday reported.
Zisopoulos randomly attacked Russo on 20th Ave. near 41st St. in Astoria, just a few steps from EMS Station 49 on 42nd St., authorities charge.
The killer ran up to Russo as she stood on the corner and attacked her just as she noticed him, video viewed by the Daily News showed. He knocked Russo to the ground as he lunged at her with a knife, then repeatedly stabbed her as she lay on the sidewalk.
He ran to his apartment and barricaded himself inside for about an hour before police talked him into surrendering.
“The million-dollar question in this case is: If you decide that that is Peter Zisopoulos on the video, what was in his mind on Sept. 29, 2022?” Zisopoulos’ defense lawyer, Gina Mitchell, asked jurors.
Mitchell said the video showed a “frenzied attack,” but alluded to it possibly being altered by law enforcement officials. For Zisopoulos to be convicted of the top murder charge, prosecutors would need to prove he had the intent to kill Russo.
“But ultimately, if you find that the video is real and if you decide that the person depicted on the video … is in fact Peter Zisopolous, then you have one important issue to consider: Did he intend to kill her?” she asked. “No matter how horrifying [the details] are, no matter how much you may sympathize with Capt. Russo, you are required to hold the prosecution to their burden. … Intent means conscious objective or purpose.”
Russo, a 24-year veteran of the FDNY, was expecting to retire in a few months when she was slain.
She was appointed to the FDNY in March 1998 as an emergency medical technician and was promoted to paramedic in 2002 and to lieutenant in 2016. Former FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh posthumously promoted Russo to captain during the victim’s funeral on Long Island.
Russo’s daughter, Danielle Fuoco, said she’d seen footage of the attack before but never from the angle shown in court Monday. “This was extremely disturbing,” she said.
Anthony Almojera, the vice president of the FDNY EMS officers’ union, saw video of the attack for the first time Monday.
The footage made him “incredibly angry,” he said. “We all knew Allison. I worked with her. Everybody in that court, we knew her.”
“It’s horrible. You see that she was standing there trying to figure it out and then ambushed by this maniac, who stabbed her over 20 times,” he added. “And you watch the crew finally get there and recognize her and the horror they must be feeling while treating the woman they work with.”
He expressed frustration over having to wait almost three years before the case went to trial.
“He did it. He’s guilty. He should go to jail,” Almojera said. “I understand this due process, but three years of due process back and forth, it’s just frustrating.”
©2025 New York Daily News.
Visit nydailynews.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.