Saluting ‘our hero’
EMT Arroyo is honored a year after being killed on duty
A YEAR after the city was shocked by the killing of Emergency Medical Technician Yadira Arroyo by a maniac who hijacked her ambulance, her FDNY brothers and sisters remembered her at vigil in the Bronx.
“We are gathering here so no one forgets our hero who lost her life in the line of duty,” Oren Barzilay, president of Local 2507, Uniform EMTs, Paramedics and Fire Inspectors union, said Friday.
The 44-year-old mother of five, known as Yari, was on overtime, working in Soundview when career criminal Jose Gonzalez, who prosecutors say was high and mentally disturbed, jumped on the back of her ambulance at about 7 p.m. on March 16, 2017.
When Arroyo stopped to get him off the rear bumper, he jumped in behind the wheel and mowed her down, according to the Bronx District Attorney.
Gonzalez is charged with murder. He is being held on Rikers Island.
On Friday afternoon, scores of EMTs and paramedics, some in uniform, stood in the bright sun at the intersection of White Plains Road and Watson Ave. in Soundview, where Arroyo was killed, holding candles with flames flickering in the bitter wind.
“A moment doesn’t go by when we don’t feel the anguish of losing her in such a traumatic way,” her uncle A.J. Hernandez said. “I look around and see a lot of people feeling the same thing. The EMTs are angels on wheels. It was terrible to lose her in such a terrible way.”
The way Arroyo lived was a striking contrast to the way she died.
Known as the “Matriarch of Station 26,” she was a 14-year FDNY veteran. She had an infectious laugh and volunteered at soup kitchens in her spare time, friends said. Arroyo is the eighth member of EMS killed in the line of duty.
At the corner where she was struck, was a replica of Arroyo’s shield, arranged in gold carnations. Half a dozen bouquets lay on the ground.
“This job is extremely dangerous,” Barzilay said. “This tragic incident brought to life just how dangerous.”
After Arroyo’s death, a fund set up by the Daily News raised $133,765 for the five boys she left behind.
Even after the window to donate to the children closed, News readers continued to give, raising another $37,756.09 for the family. Last week, the paper gave the money to the FDNY Foundation to administer.
“On behalf of the Arroyo boys, the FDNY and The FDNY Foundation, thank you and the New York Daily News readers and New York Daily News charities for the tremendous support of FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo’s family and your recognition of her service and sacrifice,” FDNY Foundation Executive Director Jean O’Shea said.
“The outpouring of support and contributions given to EMT Yadira Arroyo’s children is a testament to the impact she had on others.”
Daily News readers also rallied around the family of slain NYPD officer Miosotis Familia, who was shot and killed on July 5 by a deranged man in the Bronx.
After donations closed for her family, more money — $13, 363.94 — poured in. The Daily News will turn that money over to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation next week.