Trial for murdered FDNY medic begins nearly three years after her death

Alison Russo-Elling was stabbed to death in 2022. The trial for the man accused of the killing, Peter Zisopoulos, began after he was found mentally fit. Photo via FDNY/X

By Noah Powelson

After years of delays and questions over whether the defendant behind a violent killing in Queens was mentally fit to face the charges, the trial of a murdered FDNY veteran who was stabbed to death in 2022 began on Monday.

A jury heard opening arguments and the account of a witness for the case of Peter Zisopoulos, a 36-year-old man who is accused of stabbing FDNY Emergency Medical Service Lieutenant Alison Russo-Elling 20 times in the middle of the day nearly three years ago.

Zisopoulos, who had only recently been found fit to stand trial after years being transferred between mental health hospitals and Rikers Island, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

With crowds of firefighters and EMS workers watching from the gallery of the courtroom, Queens Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Selkowe said his aim through the trial will be to paoint a clear picture of the stabbing that took place in Astoria through eye witnesses, forensics evidence, footage from surveillance cameras and police body-worn cameras. At the heart of the Queens district attorney’s office’s case is the allegation that Zisopoulos fully intended on violently killing the veteran EMT when he spotted her.

“Twenty times. Twenty times he stabbed her in broad daylight,” Selkowe told the jury. “He had the desire to kill, he had the intent to kill, and unfortunately for Alison…she was his target,”

Video and images will be critical to prove Zisopoulos as the murderer to the jury, and the multitude of eye witnesses will establish the timeline of the 2022 stabbing.

But perhaps the most important question for the case is what, if any, intent Zisopoulos had on that day.

Zisopoulos, who had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2008, was found unfit to stand trial in August 2023. Though the defendant, when asked by a judge, seemed to understand where he was, that he was facing murder charges, who his attorneys were and the overall court process he found himself in, he also expressed paranoid delusions that police officers were conspiring against him, that evidence was forged or tampered with, and that he never left his apartment the afternoon when Russo-Elling was killed.

In mental health proceedings that happened last month, two court-appointed mental health experts who interviewed the defendant said they believed Zisopoulos was delusional and psychotic.

Despite these incidents, presiding Supreme Court Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant said that Zisopoulos had also exhibited signs he was rational. Namely, Zisopoulos had rejected the use of a psychiatric defense, a defense that would require him to plead guilty and be admitted to a mental health facility. Such a decision, Pandit-Durant determined, showed calculated thought and awareness of his situation.

Gina Mitchell, Zisopoulos’ attorney, told the jury on Monday that evidence regarding a video tape the defendant said was forged will come into play during the trial. Mitchell also said the jury can consider all evidence indicative of Zisopoulos’ mental state, and how that may or may not have impacted his intent.

Mitchell said it was ultimately up to the jury to determine if the video was forged and if Zisopoulos was the murderer. But even if they did, Mitchell said, the prosecution would not be able to prove Zisopoulos killed “with intent to cause the death of another person,” the crucial legal language of second-degree murder Zisopoulos is accused of.

“[The prosecution] also needs to prove the mental evidence and intention to kill,” Mitchell said.

First witness takes the stand

The first witness called to the stand on Monday was one of Zisopoulos’ neighbors in Astoria who said she witnessed the entire stabbing take place across the street from her home.

According to the neighbor’s testimony and other details released by the Queens district attorney’s office, Russo-Elling was walking down 41st Street around 2 pm. Russo-Elling was on duty at the time, and had turned the corner onto 20th Avenue when a man suddenly rushed her from behind and attacked her with a knife.

The neighbor, who was working at home at the time, said she had walked out the front door to pick up mail around 2 p.m. when she heard screams nearby. Initially thinking it was the neighborhood children playing, she looked around and instead saw Russo-Elling being chased by a man, falling down and then being stabbed repeatedly by her assailant.

The witness said that she recognized Zisopoulos and knew he lived in the area. She said she had never spoken to Zisopoulos before and didn’t know his name until after the attack, but in the five years she lived at her 20th Avenue home, she probably saw Zisopoulos hundreds of times walking around the neighborhood with his family.

Footage taken from nearby surveillance cameras that captured the stabbing was played for the neighbor and the jury. The footage showed Russo-Elling walking down the street when a man wearing a grey shirt attacked her from behind. Russo-Elling let out several loud screams but was quickly silenced when the attacker stabbed her.

On the footage, a man on a motorcycle who was passing by pulled over and yelled at the attacker to stop, but fled when the assailant chased the motorist with the knife. Eventually, the attacker calmly walked back down 41st Street, and a passing pedestrian follows on foot.

The prosecution said they plan to call up that pedestrian for testimony later in the trial.

While the attacker’s facial features are not clear from the footage, the prosecution argues, and the witness corroborated, that the knife-wielding attacker on the footage was Zisopoulos.

Watching the incident play out from the front door of her home, the neighbor took several pictures and a short video after the stabbing took place, and then called 911.

The Queens DA’s office said Zisopoulos was later found barricaded inside his apartment, and was arrested after hostage negotiators convinced him to let the police in.

Prosecutors also said when Zisopoulos was arrested he was found with the murder weapon and blood covering his hands. Selkowe said he intends to submit forensic evidence proving the blood belonged to the late Russo-Elling.

Russo-Elling had been an EMS member of the FDNY for nearly 25 years when she was killed in Astoria. Russo-Elling also served as a first responder on 911, and was set to retire in the coming months before her death. She is survived by her parents and daughter.