MTA cop and Good Samaritans subdue suspect after EMT run over by ambulance
SOUNDVIEW, Bronx (WABC) -- Many people came to the aid of Yadira Arroyo, the FDNY EMT who was killed in the line of duty when she was run over by her own ambulance, including Good Samaritans who helped subdue the suspect as the chaos unfolded.
In new exclusive video obtained by Eyewitness News, you see at least three people holding down the man who is now under arrest. Two of them are Good Samaritans, one of them is a cop just doing his job, MTA canine officer Daniel McDade.
Watch the video here:
"The only thing I can really say is that I was just glad I was there to stop the threat, and if it stopped maybe him from doing something else then that's OK," said McDade.
It is clear that the chaos Jose Gonzalez brought upon a community in the Bronx Thursday night was inexplicable and the video captured by bystanders shows why.
He can be seen clinging to the back of the moving ambulance in the seconds before witnesses say he jumped off to rob a boy with a backpack.
Arroyo had gotten out to help the boy who was robbed, but Gonzalez then got into the ambulance.
"And she tried to go back in the vehicle, to drag him out and there's like seconds and he just reversed the car so hard and slammed her," said witness Anis Nagi.
Flowers marked the spot where it happened along White Plains Road. There were prayers too, and only love for the 14-year-veteran of the FDNY.
"I don't even have no words for this..it touched me so much, you know," said one of the EMT's former colleagues, Damon Hobbs.
Those who crossed paths with Yadira Arroyo told us she was all about saving lives.
"My daughter had an accident and she was the one that came," said Madeline Martinez, who told us Arroyo first treated her daughter but then her, back in January, as a patient in the ambulance.
"In the ambulance she was keeping me calm so when I saw the picture, then I saw that it was her, right there, that broke my heart really bad," said Martinez.
