A Bronx man has been found eligible again five years after he was accused of fatally running over a paramedic with her own ambulance, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
A psychiatric center’s finding that Jose Gonzalez was “no longer an incapacitated person” comes four months after a court ruled that he could not stand trial in the death of victim Yadira Arroyo, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark .
Arroyo, an FDNY paramedic, was mowed down after Gonzalez allegedly impounded the emergency vehicle during the sickening March 16, 2017 incident, leaving the 44-year-old’s five children without a mother.
“When Jose Gonzalez was found unfit to stand trial, we said that was by no means the end of this indictment,” Clark said in a statement.
“Now, approximately four months later, health professionals at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center have determined that he is no longer an incapacitated person.”
He had previously been declared unfit to stand trial on May 26. He was previously declared fit to stand trial in April 2019 after state psychiatrists initially declared him unfit following a battery of psychological tests.
Arroyo’s family wants Gonzalez punished.
“We want him to pay for what he did,” Ali Acevedo-Hernandez, an aunt of Arroyo, told The Post in 2019 while a hearing was being held to determine the defendant’s mental state.
Gonzalez will appear in court in the Bronx on Sept. 29, where he faces charges of first-degree manslaughter, robbery, involuntary homicide and operating a drunk motor vehicle, Clark said.
“We thank her family and her FDNY colleagues for their patience and support as we continue to seek justice for Yadi,” Clark said.
Oren Barzilay, president of FDNY EMS Local 2507, said Arroyo’s colleagues have long waited for Gonzalez to be brought to justice.
“We have waited for justice for five long years and thought all hope was lost because of this man playing the system,” he said in a statement. “Now there is light at the end of the tunnel and there may yet be justification for the murder of our sister Yadiro Arroyo.”
