Psychiatrist says Yadira Arroyo FDNY EMT murder accused was ‘clearly psychotic’

A psychiatrist who treated an ER worker accused of killing him in the Bronx says the man was “obviously a psychopath” when he was questioned by detectives after the gruesome murder.

As the trial for the murder of 31-year-old Jose Gonzalez continued Wednesday in the Bronx, his defense attorney called Bellevue Hospital’s forensic psychiatry director, Dr. Jeremy Colley, as a witness.

Jose Gonzalez before the start of his trial for the March 2017 murder of FDNY EMT employee Yadira Arroyo on February 8, 2023 in the Bronx.

Colley first met Gonzalez in the hospital’s prison ward in March 2017, days after FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo’s death.

Arroyo, 44, was driving with her partner in the Bronx on March 16, 2017, when they spotted Gonzalez riding in the back seat of their ambulance.

The duo stopped and Arroyo got out of the ambulance to see what was going on. As she stepped outside, Gonzalez climbed into the driver’s seat, reversed, and hit her.

He was able to start the ambulance and hit Arroyo, a 14-year veteran, once again before an MTA cop on duty and bystanders grabbed him.

Yadira Arroyo was hit and killed when Jose Gonzalez impounded her own ambulance on March 16, 2017 in the Bronx.

After being charged, he was taken to Rikers Island but was soon transferred to Bellevue, Calley said on Wednesday.

“The doctors were convinced he was psychotic,” Colley said. “He wasn’t on medication, he didn’t want to take medication, and he didn’t think he was mentally ill.”

In addition to looking at Gonzalez’s tapes from Rikers and Bellevue, Colley said he overestimated the toxicology report showing PCP in the defendant’s bloodstream and the NYPD video of interviews in which Gonzalez rambled on, even calling himself a “hero”, giving inconsistent reports on how he got into the ER.

“He was clearly a psycho when he was talking to the detectives,” Calley said after viewing the first few minutes of the footage. “I watch him talk to NYPD detectives. [and] I think there were just things he didn’t remember or didn’t remember.”

Gonzalez had 31 arrests prior to the murder and faces charges of murder, manslaughter, manslaughter of a motor vehicle, and driving under the influence of drugs.

Colley, who serves as an expert witness in both criminal and civil trials, told the court that he believes Gonzalez made many bullshit statements to police.

“I think the most prominent of these is his belief that there was a bomb in the ambulance,” the doctor said. “I think he’s just telling stories, fooling around? I thought it over. I don’t think that’s the best explanation.”

Gonzalez told police that he heard voices in his head and spoke directly to God. He had previously been deemed unfit to stand trial, but in September it was decided that he could.

His first court appearance in the case took place in April 2017, when he pleaded not guilty.

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