Bravest grief
Heartbroken ma weeps for road-rage vic son
The devastated mother of Firefighter Faizal Coto wept outside a Brooklyn funeral home Thursday as her slain son took his final ride aboard an FDNY truck.
Family members joined with hundreds of Coto’s firefighting brothers to honor the 33-year-old at a funeral just four days after his baseball bat-beating death in a roadrage incident.
His grief-stricken mom, Fidelina Coto, was propped up by family members as her son’s casket, draped in an FDNY flag, was loaded into the back of a fire engine to leave the Leone Funeral Home.
Fidelina, whose son Gabriel is also a city firefighter, was presented with Faizal’s fire helmet at the funeral’s finish. The late Coto was a member of Engine 245/Ladder 161 in Brooklyn.
“What a sad, really sad, morning,” said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. “A wonderful outpouring of love for a really nice young man who was just starting out his career. Senselessly murdered.”
The Coto family kept the services private, and left Nigro to address the media. The FDNY head recounted meeting with the dead man’s mom shortly after the mortally injured Coto was found on the Belt Parkway.
“I was at the hospital when she came, and I broke the news to her and she just couldn’t believe it,” said Nigro. “I couldn’t even stand the amount of pain she was feeling in that night.”
An unconscious Coto was discovered alongside his damaged 2008 Ford Mustang around 4:45 a.m. near Exit 4 on Belt Parkway in Brooklyn. The off-duty firefighter was attacked following a collision with a silver 2006 Infiniti G35 whose driver bashed Coto and sped away, leaving the threeyear FDNY veteran to die.
Suspect Joseph Desmond, 29, is a Latin Kings member who served time for a hatecrime assault — and was released from prison just seven months ago. He was arrested in a South Amboy, N.J., motel on the day after the fatal assault.
Fellow firefighter Gino Vaccaro, who met Coto when both were studying to become FDNY drivers, remembered sharing a drink with his pal just last month when they finished school.
“A good guy to hang out with,” said Vaccaro. “He was a very smart, bright individual. Very into his job… I have nothing but good things to say about him.”