A deranged Bronx defendant was sentenced Wednesday to life without parole for the murder of beloved city EMT Yadira Arroyo, the final step in a tortured legal process stretching over six heartbreaking years.
Jose Gonzalez, 31, appeared seven weeks after his conviction for the murder of Arroyo, a 14-year EMT veteran and the mother of five sons, in the headline-making case. The courtroom, as it was during the trial, was packed with the victim’s family and colleagues.
“This is a moment many of us thought to be far out of reach for years,” said Oren Barzilay, President, FDNY EMS Local 2507. “Now that a sentence has finally been issued, it’s a blessing to know that Yadira’s family and colleagues can be at peace. She was a light in the EMS family taken too soon. It is a relief to finally have justice.”
The long-awaited guilty verdict came in March, just eight days before the sixth anniversary of Arroyo’s gruesome death beneath the wheels of her hijacked truck.
The career criminal had a rap sheet of 31 prior arrests when he crossed paths with Arroyo, who was working an overtime shift when killed.
The prosecution was repeatedly delayed in a battle over the defendant’s mental health, with dozens of hearings held and conflicting court filings over his fitness for trial. The case finally began this past February, with Gonzalez convicted after a month-long trial and two days of deliberations.
Arroyo’s colleagues wept in the courtroom when the verdict was read, while Gonzalez stood impassively.
“Yadira Arroyo was an extraordinary EMT who cared for her patients deeply – just as she was doing when she was brutally killed six years ago,” said FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. “We are grateful her killer will never be on the streets again, with no eligibility for parole … We will continue to honor her memory of service to our city.”
The shocking March 16, 2017, killing left Arroyo’s co-workers devastated — particularly her partner, who watched helplessly as Gonzalez jumped inside their truck and twice ran Arroyo down.
The lethal encounter was set in motion after Gonzalez jumped on the back of their moving vehicle, with things escalating from there. Once arrested, the killer bizarrely began reciting the alphabet.
The size of a football field, the mammoth theater erected in front of Union Station for this week’s NFL Draft is the biggest the league has ever built.
But the NFL actually wanted to build an even larger, more elaborate stage.
Months ago, the league planned a structure complete with a second story that could house as many as 1,000 people. But fire department officials say those plans were scaled back during conversations with the NFL.
Such a grandiose NFL Draft Theater would have faced more scrutiny from city inspectors and driven up the cost substantially because of the need to install a sprinkler system in the temporary structure.
“The building process would have taken significantly longer, the inspection process would have been significantly more involved,” said Joseph Ragsdale, the city’s assistant fire marshal who has worked on the draft preparations. “And the cost — just the sprinkler system for that, I don’t even know…we told them what they would need, and they said, ‘Oh, yeah, never mind.’”
The Kansas City Fire Department has overseen much of the construction of the stage, which has been underway for weeks. When reviewing preliminary plans some six months ago, Ragsdale said it became clear that the project would prove too expensive.
“Even with as grand of a scale as they have available to them,” he said, “they were starting a little too grand.”
The NFL Draft is considered one of the biggest and most-anticipated professional sporting events Kansas City has ever hosted, putting the city in the national spotlight as fans come from across the country and millions watch the broadcasts. All three days of the draft — Thursday through Saturday — will take place on stage at the Draft Theater, broadcast live on the NFL Network, ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes.
Sprawling across the front of Union Station and stretching south to the National WWI Museum and Memorial, the event is expected to attract hundreds of thousands. From the outset, safety of the athletes and the crowd has been a top priority. Ragsdale, along with Deputy Chief James Dean, the city’s fire marshal, spoke to The Star Tuesday about safety preparations.
Ragsdale said he was “very confident” that the massive draft theater was structurally sound.
“I take the safety of the community and our guests to our city very, very seriously,” he said. “And I think this is going to be an awesome event. And we’re all going to walk away from it with joy.”
Because of the complexity of the theater, fire department officials leaned on a third-party engineering firm to review plans for the structure — and ensure actual construction followed those documented plans.
“So it’s not just my eyes looking at it to ensure compliance with the design,” Ragsdale said, “but the peer engineer is also going to re-evaluate to make sure that it was built in a way that is secure and safe.”
Ragsdale said he walked through the venue on Friday and plans to conduct another inspection on Wednesday at which he will meet with an NFL contract agent who is handling the safety issues.
Fire department officials also will be on site through the duration of the draft, he said.
The fire department waived its permitting fees for the NFL Draft, something it occasionally does for special events the city is promoting, Dean said.
“But it doesn’t remove our inspection process,” Dean said. “That still remains the same.”
But city rules exempt certain projects from building requirements, including “temporary motion pictures, television and theater stage sets and scenery.”
The city’s Planning and Development Department did issue a permit to erect temporary support columns in an underground Union Station parking garage that sits directly below the NFL Draft Theater. The city required the work to help bear the weight of the massive stage, said Sherae Honeycutt, a city spokeswoman.
She said the city planned for a special inspections engineering firm to review the work before the draft begins.
Otherwise, Honeycutt said, the city’s Planning and Development Department, which oversees most construction projects, wouldn’t have been involved in the NFL Draft plans. She said the fire department generally has jurisdiction for temporary, outdoor venues.
“The only reason the City Planning and Development Department was involved with the structure is because it was on top of a building,” Honeycutt said, referring to the parking garage. “If it had been installed on the ground or street, we wouldn’t have required plans, calculations, or special inspections by an engineering firm.”
Though the shoring project in the underground garage is being handled by the city, Ragsdale said, “we will have personnel in that space throughout the entire event.”
“So if there were to be anything that’s not going according to plan,” he said, “we’ll have direct communication to start letting people know.”
Ragsdale said he didn’t have the exact weight of the theater structure readily available, but described it as “tons and tons.”
“Just for instance, on one of the columns, there are layers of steel plates that are probably two-and-a-half or three feet thick,” he said. “They’re probably larger than a sheet of plywood or two, maybe, at each of those pillars. The amount of weight that’s involved in that structure is immense.”
Besides the structural issues, Ragsdale said, the fire department is working with police and other authorities to prepare for worst-case scenarios at the event.
“There’s homeland security, hazardous materials preparation, a mass evacuation preparation, mass casualty incident walkthroughs and preparations,” he said. “We don’t predict every single possibility, but we try.”
In case of an emergency, Ragsdale said, the fences surrounding the perimeter have a significant number of gates that can be opened.
Sgt. Jacob Becchina, a Kansas City police spokesman, said there will be “hundreds and hundreds of officers” working the three-day event.
“Similar to the way the last two Super Bowl parades were, we made requests of all of the surrounding agencies in the metro area for mutual aid assistance,” he said, “and there’ll be officers from more than 20 agencies around the metro area plus federal partners that will be helping us with security for the event.”
But unlike the Super Bowl parades, Becchina said, the NFL Draft is in a closed environment.
“It very closely resembles what you experience on game day going into Arrowhead,” he said. “There’ll be a security checkpoint, there’ll be a designated entrance. There are certain things that are not allowed in, just like an NFL game, as far as bags and outside beverages, and obviously weapons, things of that nature.”
Those attending in a group should have a reunification plan in case they get separated, he said. There will also be a child reunification station inside the grounds. If all else fails, he said, find a police officer, firefighter or security officer.
Like at every Chiefs game, Becchina said, crews from the KCPD Bomb and Arson Unit will be on hand with explosive detection dogs to monitor activity.
“It’s basically like a Chiefs game response, but like on a times-one-thousand scale,” he said.
Becchina said the police department has been planning for the NFL Draft since 2019.
“A few of our people went to Nashville when they hosted the draft to see that and get an idea of that,” he said. “And then really, we’ve ramped up the last three to four months.
“We’re confident in our planning and our ability to protect the people and in any situation that comes up.”
According to the NFL, the 2023 Draft footprint is roughly 3.1 million square feet. The area will contain 7½ miles of temporary fence lines and 1½ miles of concrete barrier. It takes more than 500 semi-trailer loads to transport all the gear, which includes 168 loudspeakers and subwoofer enclosures, 10,018 square feet of screens and 1,433 LED panels.
There’s also a process in place to deal with extreme weather.
The “High Wind Action Plan” requires the weather to be continuously monitored. When wind speeds are expected to exceed 20 mph, the document says, all personnel responsible for enacting the plan must be assembled. When the wind speeds are expected to exceed 40 mph, it says, workers must lower and remove all video lighting and audio equipment, secure it to the ground, remove the theater curtains and evacuate the area.
“Failure to follow the high wind action plan may result in injury or death of persons and damage to equipment or property,” the plan says.
Ragsdale said that in his career with the fire department, “we’ve never had anything this big as a temporary structure.”
“Any time that there’s a major event, people are naturally a little concerned for safety,” he said. “And so we want everybody to know that we are taking this really seriously and we are really ready for Kansas City to shine this weekend.”
Is there anything about it that keeps him up at night?
“I would say that a few weeks ago, yeah,” he said. “But no, last night I slept really comfortably.”
A judge is deciding if retardant can be used this wildfire season.
Apr. 24—A case brought by an Oregon-based advocacy group challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s use of aerial fire retardant is making its way through federal court, with a judge now tasked on deciding how the agency can use retardant this summer while it seeks Environmental Protection Agency guidance.
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics filed the lawsuit objecting to the Forest Service’s use of fire retardant in U.S. waterways. The suit, filed last October, accuses the Forest Service of violating the nation’s Clean Water Act. It claims the retardant use during wildfires harms or kills fish and amphibians in the streams or lakes where it’s dropped from tanker aircraft.
The ethics group is requesting the court grant an injunction against the Forest Service, barring it from depositing fire retardant into U.S. streams and rivers until a permit comes through from the EPA.
At Monday’s hearing, attorneys for both sides confirmed the Forest Service is in the process of getting a permit from the EPA, but the process will likely take between two and three years.
Missoula U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen didn’t give an exact timeline of when he expects to rule on the injunction request. But he added he’s aware of the impending fire season and wants to act with a sense of urgency.
In court filings, lawyers for the Forest Service wrote that because of the lengthy permit timeline, “the Forest Service anticipates that it will have to discharge fire retardant to waters in limited circumstances until 2025 without a permit. However, these potential future Clean Water Act violations do not themselves provide a basis for the finding of liability or the broad injunctive relief FSEEE seeks.”
Forest Service officials acknowledged in court filings that retardant has been dropped into waterways more than 200 times in the past decade, the AP reported. Officials said it’s typically a mistake, and environmental damage from wildfires exceeds harm done by retardant.
The Associated Press cited a Department of Agriculture report that 100 million gallons (378 million liters) of fire retardant were used during the past decade. The chemical is made up of water and other ingredients including fertilizers or salts that can be harmful to fish, frogs, crustaceans and other aquatic animals.
Missoula-based Neptune Aviation is one of the nation’s largest providers of aerial firefighting planes. It is not part of the lawsuit.
“The issue here is what comes next?” said Timothy Bechtold, a Missoula lawyer representing the ethics group, at the outset of Monday’s hearing. In court filings and at the hearing, Bechtold contended that retardant qualifies as a pollutant in waterways and causes aquatic life to die. He said the Forest Service can responsibly dump the chemicals while still protecting human safety.
“The Forest Service says it should be allowed to pollute, business as usual,” Andy Stahl, FSEEE Executive Director, told the AP. “Our position is that business as usual is illegal.”
On Monday, attorneys also sparred over retardant’s efficacy in tamping down fires.
Lawyers defending the Forest Service argued that limiting fire retardant use takes many options for firefighters off the table when it comes to fighting wildfire.
Alan Greenberg, a Department of Justice attorney for the Forest Service, said the injunction the advocacy group is seeking is overly broad, and is only specific to one incident in the Los Padres National Forest where retardant was dumped on a waterway.
Julian Ellis Jr., a Denver-based attorney representing wildfire stakeholders in the case, argued that the Forest Service’s role in firefighting is paramount, and that while retardant isn’t the only tool in a firefighter’s toolkit, it’s a critical one.
“Lives and property depend on this decision,” Ellis said.
Zoë Buchli is the criminal justice reporter for the Missoulian.
A house on an island in the Florida Keys was destroyed by fire this past weekend despite residents’ efforts.
No fire engines or firefighters were involved in the operation — and for good reason. Cook Island is only accessible by boat.
Monroe County Fire Rescue did not immediately respond to the blaze, so after the inferno finally started dissipating, neighbors took action. One neighbor rigged a pump using hoses and sea water from his boat, according to Local 10.
“We have no way to get to it — it was really a tragedy,” Chief James Callahan adding that crews eventually got a boater to take them out. “They were able to get us out there close to the island, but we still couldn’t get close enough to get on it. It was so shallow.”
The department, that covers 100 square miles, doesn’t have a fire boat.
“We’ve always known there’s problems should there be a fire out here, that comes with the turf. But the fact is, what we didn’t know was that there was no plan should such a situation arise.”
There are no roads. Residents collect rainwater in buckets and barrels and solar panels provide electricity.
Seattle firefighters and EMS personnel may get new protections under proposed legislation before city officials.
“SFD personnel have experienced more than 50 instances of this workplace violence in the last six months. Today, it’s not only occurring at incident scenes but elsewhere in the community as we perform other aspects of our job, such as during fire inspections or other routine duties,” IAFF Local 27 President Lt. Kenny Stuart told KCPQ reporters.
The current law makes it illegal for people to interfere with police officers but doesn’t mention other responders such as EMS or firefighters.
Asst. Chief Chris Lombard said: “Assaults and threatening behavior towards our unarmed members who are simply trying to help others have become a regular and unacceptable part of these responses. Our members are experiencing this with such regularity we’re starting to have trouble of even getting them to continue reporting them. They’re feeling almost hopeless in some of these regards.”
Lombard added that some of the assaults have had serious results. “SFD members have been hospitalized from assaults. Some have required surgical intervention, they’ve been punched, they’ve been threatened with death and much more.”
Stuart and Lombard say among the items used rebar, wood sticks, hammers and glass. They’ve also been spat on.
“Everybody knows what it feels like to be threatened with violence. It changes your focus of attention and what we’re looking for here is the ability for firefighters to focus 100 percent of their attention and efforts on the job at hand,” said Stuart, a 27-year veteran.
Councilmember Lisa Herbold who introduced the legislation explained: “Every day, Seattle’s firefighters are rushing into danger to protect us, whether it be from a house fire, a car wreck, or an overdose. They do so unarmed, and often their life-saving work reviving a person makes it difficult to have any defensive awareness of a possible threat. It’s time we make sure we are doing all we can to protect them. This is a common-sense fix to Seattle’s laws that allows firefighters to focus on the dangerous work they do and makes us all safer.”
A furniture warehouse in Pompano Beach was evacuated for part of Tuesday afternoon following the deaths of two pest control workers and the hospitalization of a third over the weekend, according to authorities.
The Baer’s Furniture warehouse, 1589 NW 12th Ave., was evacuated at around noon Tuesday following reports that two employees of a pesticide company had died off-site after fumigating the location, the Broward Sheriff’s Office told the Miami Herald. Investigators say a third pest control worker was hospitalized.
As of Tuesday night, authorities hadn’t said what led to the deaths and illness. The workers’ identities and the name of the pest control company hadn’t been released.
The situation began Saturday after the three workers had completed their work.
Later that day, one of them began to feel ill and went to a hospital in Palm Beach County, said Carey Codd, a BSO spokesman.
“It was discovered later that day that the other two employees were found deceased,” Codd said in an email Tuesday. “One was found [dead] in Hollywood and the other in Boynton Beach.”
The worker who was found dead in Hollywood was discovered at about 9:45 p.m. Saturday.
According to the Hollywood Police Department, officers forced their way into a vehicle at the 1700 block of Taft Street after finding him.
“Hollywood Hazmat was called out, and no hazardous chemicals were found coming from the vehicle,” Hollywood police spokeswoman Deanna Bettineschi told the Herald in an email Tuesday afternoon. “Detectives are working on this investigation and waiting for a cause of death ruling from the Medical Examiners’ Office.”
In Boynton Beach, the second victim was found. Boyton Beach police hadn’t responded to requests for details Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday, in an abundance of caution, the warehouse on 1589 NW 12th Ave. was evacuated. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue inspected it for hazardous materials but found nothing of concern, authorities said.
The warehouse is less than a mile from Markham Elementary School, which went on a hold status, keeping everyone indoors, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Baer’s Furniture employees returned to the building later in the day. Kari Fletcher, the company’s director of marketing, told the Herald in an email that no Baer’s staff has been injured.
A Robbinsville police officer was struck by a car along a New Jersey highway Saturday night as he was helping a motorist.
“There’s a parking lot right there, we’re going to push you into there okay?” Patrolman Connor Boyle is heard saying to the driver on the dashcam released by the department.
He landed briefly on the vehicle’s hood before falling to the ground, according to 6abc.
He was transported to a hospital for treatment. He was released on Monday but is using crutches.
Rachel Glatt,52, left the scene but was arrested later. She was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, careless driving and failure to change lanes for an emergency vehicle.
The incident reinforces the importance of moving over for emergency vehicles on the shoulder.
“Slow down when you see emergency lights, even tow trucks, and move over,” said Lt. Carlos Docarmo, station commander for New Jersey State Police’s Hamilton Substation.
New Jersey’s Move Over Law requires drivers passing an emergency vehicle to move over one lane if possible, and to slow down to below the speed limit.
Mayor Adams took the city’s robot dog for a walk Tuesday morning to praise its work in last week’s downtown building collapse — and to thumb his nose at critics of the emergency response pooch.
The mayor, who was joined by FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh and other top city officials, appeared at the fire department’s Randall’s Island training academy for a demonstration of the robo-dog and used the event to drive home his support of it and other new technologies the city is now employing.
“We rolled out similar technology a few weeks earlier in Times Square. Some people called them toys,” Adams said of the city’s announcement two weeks ago. “This is not play time. This is real time.”
Last week, when a parking garage collapsed on Ann St. in lower Manhattan, the FDNY deployed its so-called Digidog to search for people trapped in the wreckage and survey the scene — a move Adams touted at the time because it eliminated the need to put firefighters in harm’s way. The robot and its handlers were engaged in a training exercise at a downtown high-rise when the garage came down and arrived about 15 minutes after the first distress call went out, Kavanagh said.
“The robotics members went to work quickly, suggesting that the robotic dog could aid in the operation,” she said. “Three drones were also deployed — one overhead to give a clear picture of what was happening on the roof and two inside to assess the situation in there.”
Adams noted that it was the first time in the city’s history that the FDNY and NYPD responded with drones and the Digidog, which is named Bergh. Fabien Levy, Adams’ spokesman, said the FDNY currently has one Digidog and the NYPD has ordered two.
“This is an administration that is not going to be fearful of using everything possible to save the lives of New Yorkers and to save the lives of first responders,” Adams said. “The benefits are not theoretical. Last week, we saw it in action.”
Critics remain skeptical, though.
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a civil rights group, has criticized the robot as dystopian, calling it a “knockoff Robocop.”
And the Legal Aid Society is demanding that the City Council hold an oversight hearing.
“Mayor Adams continues to pour money into the NYPD’s bloated budget, enabling police to impose new, dystopian surveillance technologies throughout the city without meaningfully engaging New Yorkers in a conversation about whether this is how we want to live,” said Legal Aid spokesman Redmond Haskins. “The Legal Aid Society urges the City Council to hold an immediate oversight hearing to further investigate the use of these technologies and to afford all New Yorkers the chance to have their voices heard.”
A Council spokesperson said the body will delve into the city’s tech purchases at an upcoming budget hearing scheduled for May 17.
Asheville firefighters had close calls at a house fire Monday.
AFD Fire Chief Scott Burnette told WLOS three firefighters who lost the hose line were trapped in the room by the flashover. They bailed out a window to escape.
One firefighter suffered smoke inhalation and was transported to the hospital.
Chief Burnette said flashovers typically happen before firefighters get there. He added that a situation like this puts all crews on high alert.
“It definitely puts everybody into high gear in the department, especially the firefighters that are on the fire ground,” Burnette told the media. “It puts you into fire rescue mode and their efforts are 100% focused on saving one of their own. Firefighting is one of the most dangerous professions and our firefighters are faced with those dangers. When a flashover occurs, it puts them at the most danger of getting injured or losing their life.”
The chief went on to explain another close call at the incident: “At the exact same time another firefighter from another company fell through the floor all the way through the basement. He was able to get himself out with some assistance from another company that was in the basement.”
A 27-year-old father and volunteer firefighter died when the firetruck he was driving ran off the road, Tennessee officials and loved ones say.
Roy Sewell was driving a firetruck around 4 p.m. on Monday, April 24, when the truck ran off the right side of the road into an embankment and flipped, Tennessee Highway Patrol officers told WATE. No other vehicles were involved in the wreck.
Sewell was responding to a request for a landing zone for a Lifestar helicopter transport when the wreck occurred, according to the Tazewell Police Department.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
“With a saddened heart, we mourn the recent loss of our fallen brother, Captain Roy Sewell,” the department wrote on Tuesday. “Roy represented the best of us all. We love you brother. Greater love hath no man than this.”
Sewell and his wife, Randi Meshea Sewell, had a daughter and were expecting their second child in July, according to a Facebook post.
“Last I spoke to him, he was telling me how excited (and nervous!) he was to be expecting a baby boy this summer,” Paige Smith wrote in her post. “The world isn’t as bright today. It’s quieter too. The silence is deafening.”
Other loved ones shared tributes to Sewell on social media.
“Yesterday doesn’t feel real,” Sewell’s sister-in-law wrote in a Facebook post. “If you knew Roy, you knew that he was one of the nicest people you’ve ever met. I was blessed to have known Roy and even more blessed to call him my brother in law.”
“Roy truly gave his all to his family first, then this department. His willingness to serve and heart for his brotherhood and community went unmatched,” Sewell’s brother said in a comment. “We’re all shocked and words are hard to come by, but one thing rings true and it’s that he was doing what he loved.”
Tazewell is about 50 miles northeast of Knoxville.
