Officer dies after 13 years in coma

She was involved in crash in which her fellow officer died

A New Haven officer who has been in a coma since she was involved in a highspeed collision with a sergeant while on her way to a call in 2008 has died.

Officer Diane Gonzalez died Monday, New Haven police said. She leaves behind a son, two daughters and grandchildren.

Her fellow officer, Sgt. Dario “Scott” Aponte was killed instantly in the crash, city police said. Aponte, 43, was a 17-year veteran; Gonzalez was 47 and had been with the department 13 years at the time of the collision. Aponte’s wife, who also served with New Haven police, had delivered a son months earlier.

The crash happened late on the night of Sept. 9, 2008, more than 13 years ago. Both Gonzalez and Aponte were headed to the same emergency call, a report of a violent domestic dispute at 53 Maltby St. The caller said a man was beating a woman as her children watched.

The two officers’ patrol cars crashed at the intersection of East and Chapel streets, less than two miles from Maltby.

“If one of those vehicles had gotten to that intersection five seconds later,” Police Chief James M. Lewis said at the time, “they would have gotten to that call and handled it.”

Three officers had been dispatched to the call at 11:23 p.m. The officers’ cars collided at 11:27 p.m.

Gonzalez had to be cut from her car, police said. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and slipped into a coma from which she never emerged.

On the 911 call, the woman’s screams and the man’s yelling were audible. “Are they coming?” the caller asked. “He’s going to kill her.”

When officers arrived on Maltby Street, the man and woman were gone. Police tracked them down later, but they refused to cooperate with officers. Police did not arrest the man because the woman suffered no visible injuries, a police spokesman told the Courant at the time.