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The man convicted of operating down FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo with her own ambulance in 2017 was sentenced Wednesday to life in jail with out parole for the homicide.
Department members are “grateful” that Arroyo’s killer Jose Gonzalez won’t ever be on the road once more, Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh mentioned in an announcement launched shortly after the sentencing.
“Yadira Arroyo was a rare EMT who cared for her sufferers deeply – simply as she was doing when she was brutally killed six years in the past,” Kavanagh mentioned.
“We be part of her household in our continued mourning of her loss and hope this sentencing can supply a pathway to therapeutic for individuals who beloved her. We will proceed to honor her reminiscence of service to our metropolis.”
A Bronx jury convicted Gonzalez of first-degree homicide in March for killing Arroyo, a beloved 44-year-old mother of five, when he hit her along with her personal ambulance throughout a PCP-induced rampage.
Arroyo and her companion, Monique Williams, had been on their strategy to an emergency name involving a pregnant lady when a passing motorist signaled to them that somebody was using on the ambulance bumper, Williams testified in February.
The pair, who have been driving down White Plains Road at about 7 p.m. on March 16, 2017, pulled over to analyze, Williams mentioned. That’s when Gonzalez ran across the rig and hopped behind the wheel.
Arroyo and Williams fought again, making an attempt to tug the allegedly PCP-crazed man out of the driving force’s seat.
“I bear in mind her screaming, ‘Oh hell, no!’ ” Williams mentioned of Arroyo.
But Gonzalez, a profession prison with 31 prior arrests below his belt, kicked the ambulance into gear whilst he fought the 2 medics, Williams mentioned.
Another witness informed the courtroom that Gonzalez reversed the ambulance, hit a automobile, then lurched ahead into an intersection. That’s when Arroyo fell beneath the wheels.
“I overpassed her,” mentioned Williams, who retired the day of the horror. “When we began to go ahead, I felt some tumbling beneath us.”
She discovered Arroyo mendacity nonetheless on the bottom. The 14-year-medic with the FDNY later died of her accidents on the hospital.
A surveillance video recording offered by the protection confirmed Gonzalez stroll as much as the driving force’s aspect door, open it and climb in. But an SUV obscured Arroyo falling out earlier than the rig began to maneuver.
An off-duty MTA police officer noticed the defendant drag Arroyo earlier than crashing right into a snow financial institution, prosecutors mentioned. When Gonzalez tried to flee, the officer tackled and handcuffed him with the assistance of a number of civilians.
At one level through the trial, prosecutors displayed grotesque picture proof of the ambulance’s blood-splattered aspect and smashed headlight — which elicited loud gasps from the group of EMTs sitting within the courtroom.
Gonzalez was initially declared unfit for trial, however well being professionals at Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center reversed that decision in September.
He pleaded not responsible after his indictment.
