Astoria resident Peter Zisopolos was found guilty of murder for the fatal stabbing of an FDNY EMS Lieutenant during an unprovoked attack in 2022 as she walked to lunch less than a half a block from her stationhouse. Photo by Dean Moses
May 20, 2025 By Bill Parry
An Astoria man was convicted at trial of murdering an FDNY EMS Lieutenant in September 2022 in Queens Supreme Court on Monday.
Peter Zisopoulos, 37, of 41st Street, was found guilty after the jury needed less than an hour to reach a verdict in the fatal stabbing of Lieutenant Alison Russo, a 24-year veteran of the FDNY EMS, and 9/11 first responder, who was posthumously promoted to captain. The unprovoked attack occurred just steps from the victim’s EMS Station 49.
“Alison Russo was a long-time public servant who cared deeply for the people of New York City,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Our city is still mourning for a woman who saved countless lives as a member of the FDNY EMS and as a volunteer with her local ambulance company on Long Island.”
FDNY EMS Lieutenant Alison Russo was a 24-year-old veteran from Huntington, LI. FDNY
According to the charges and trial testimony, on Sept. 29, 2022, at approximately 2:10 p.m., Alison Russo, 61, of Huntington, LI, was in uniform and on duty as she left her stationhouse and walked along 41st Street near 20th Avenue. Zisopoulos emerged from his apartment building, charged at Russo, and shoved her to the sidewalk. Zisopoulos got on top of her and plunged a kitchen knife into the 61-year-old woman’s chest and abdomen 20 times, penetrating her liver, lungs and heart.
According to trial records, a man on a scooter tried to intervene and shouted at the defendant. Zisopoulos yelled at the man on the scooter and then chased him away with the knife in his hand.
After running toward the witness on the scooter, Zisopoulos walked past Russo as she bled on the sidewalk, turned the corner, and walked into his apartment building at 19-80 41st St. and locked himself in the third-floor apartment he shared with his mother. A good Samaritan followed Zisopoulos and then ran to the nearby EMS station to get help.
Police from the 114th Precinct in Astoria responded to the scene. After a standoff during which Zisopoulos refused to open his apartment door, NYPD hostage negotiators were able to talk him out of his apartment and he was arrested. A knife was recovered from the defendant’s front pants pocket. Testing determined that a mixture of DNA was found on the knife belonging to both Russo and Zisopoulos. EMS rushed Russo to Mount Sinai Queens in Astoria, where she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead.
“This defendant, armed with a serrated kitchen knife, repeatedly stabbed Russo in an unprovoked attack in September 2022 as the woman walked less than a block from her EMS stationhouse,” Katz said. “Sadly, despite the extraordinary intervention of her EMS coworkers and emergency room doctors, Russo could not be saved.”
Trial openings began on May 7, and summations took place on Monday, May 19. Zisopoulos was found guilty of murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree after trial.
“I hope this conviction brings Alison’s family, friends, and coworkers solace as we continue to grieve her loss,” Katz said. The FDNY estimated that Russo responded to 25,000 emergency calls throughout her career. She had been preparing to retire six months before she was killed, her family said.
Queens Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant set June 30 for sentencing, at which time Zisopoulos faces 25 years to life in prison.
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