The suspect on trial in the murder of Yadira Arroyo, 44, an FDNY EMT and mother of five, who was struck by her own stolen ambulance nearly six years ago, allegedly told police he was a “hero.”
Police say 25-year-old Jose Gonzalez was high on PCP on March 16, 2017, when he jumped on the rear bumper of an ambulance traveling down White Plains Road in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx.
Alerted by a passing driver, the two EMTs, who were on their way to a call to help a pregnant woman, went out to investigate, and that’s when Gonzalez is accused of jumping behind the wheel.
In a recorded interview with police after the bloodshed, González reportedly rambled, insisting that he had a broken hand and was seeking medical help, at one point commenting that he was a “hero.”
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The murder trial of New York City Fire Department EMT Yadira Arroyo is underway nearly six years after she was struck by her ambulance. (Spencer Platt/fake images)
“All I remember is getting in the ambulance and driving to the hospital,” Gonzalez tells officers in video played in court Tuesday, according to the New York Daily News.
“Suddenly the mother——policeman crashed into the ambulance,” he adds.
González claimed that he had been invited into the ambulance and said that an EMT noticed that he was bleeding.
“I’m a good guy, I’ll protect you,” he says in the video. “I’m a hero. I want to go home, I’m tired.”
“Did you notice someone was under the vehicle?” asks a detective.
“No, there was no one there,” says González. “What do you mean? That’s a lie.”
José González allegedly told police after hitting Yadira Arroyo, an FDNY EMT, that he was a “hero.” (Marcus Santos/NY Daily News via Getty Images)
“Ambulances don’t drive themselves,” replies the detective. “They go out in groups of two. She was trying to get back in when you were driving.”
“I talk to God and I hear voices in my head,” says González. “You’re trying to use reverse psychology because I didn’t do anything wrong.
“I am a hero, I saved that lady,” he says of the Arroyo couple.
Arroyo’s partner, Monique Williams, testified how she and Arroyo tried to fight González.
Williams said she was trying to pry Gonzalez’s hand off the wheel, but he managed to start the ambulance, the New York Post reported. He backed up, hit another car and Arroyo went down. The ambulance lunged forward, ran over Arroyo and dragged her into the intersection.
Yadira Arroyo, an FDNY EMT, was struck and killed by her own ambulance. (Spencer Platt/fake images)
“I lost sight of her,” testified Williams, who checked out the day of the deadly incident, according to the Post. “As we started moving forward, I felt something drop under us.”
“I ran over to her to try to pick her up,” Williams added quietly. “She didn’t get up. I just stayed there with her. She didn’t move anymore, so I just stayed there with her.”
The trial on Tuesday was attended by about 50 EMTs, who reportedly gasped from the gallery as prosecutors displayed photos showing the blood-spattered driver’s-side door of the ambulance.
Another witness testified Tuesday that after shooting down the EMT, Gonzalez got out of the vehicle and allegedly began fighting with the assembled crowd. He allegedly tried to throw a punch before another man grabbed him and threw him to the ground. A photo of Gonzalez’s initial criminal walk as he was led out of a New York police precinct following his arrest showed him sporting a black and bruised right eye.
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The case was argued in more than 50 hearings before González was cleared for trial.
He was initially declared unfit for trial last year until professionals at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center reversed course and a September hearing finally set a trial start date.
He reportedly had 31 prior arrests before Arroyo’s murder.
