Man sentenced for road rage slaying
25 years to life for ‘vicious’ killing of off-duty fi refi ghter Faizal Coto in 2018
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
A man faces 25 years to life
in prison for killing off-duty
fi refi ghter Faizal Coto in a fi t
of road rage on the Belt Parkway
in 2018.
“This defendant’s vicious
response to a minor fender
bender robbed a close family
of a loved one and a fi refi
ghter community of a brave
and treasured brother,” said
Brooklyn District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez.
According to prosecutors,
the 33-year-old suspect Joseph
Desmond was traveling on the
roadway near Dyker Heights,
when his car collided with the
victim’s vehicle in the early
morning hours of Dec. 9, 2018.
Both Desmond and the victim,
33-year-old Coto, who was
an off-duty FDNY member with
Engine 245 in Coney Island,
pulled over their cars near Exit
4 near Bay Eighth Street.
Within 15 seconds of exiting
his vehicle, Desmond approached
Coto and hit him in
the head with a blunt object,
before returning to his car
and driving off, prosecutors
said.
COURIER L 16 IFE, MARCH 11-17, 2022
EMS workers rushed to
the scene, where they found
the bloodied victim lying on
the ground, and took him to
Coney Island Hospital, where
doctors pronounced him dead
a short while later, according
to the investigation.
Authorities arrested Desmond
one day after the incident
after cameras recorded
the Staten Island resident hiding
out in a motel in New Jersey.
Both cameras on the Belt
Parkway and location data
from his cellphone placed
him at the scene of the grizzly
crime, prosecutors said.
“Our hearts continue to
be with Mr. Coto’s relatives,
friends and coworkers as
they grieve this unspeakable
loss, and I hope today’s sentence
helps bring some sense
of solace knowing that this
defendant has been held accountable,”
Gonzalez said in a
statement.
Throughout the year in
2018, the Five Boroughs saw a
The late Faizal Coto was honored by hundreds of fellow fi refi ghters, his family, and offi cials, during his funeral
procession in 2018. File photo by Trey Pentecost
signifi cantly lowered murder
rate, as just 3.31 per 100,000
people were killed in the Big
Apple that year — representing
the lowest rate in the preceding
50 years.
In late 2019, the corner of
West Eigth Street and Surf Avenue,
just outside Engine 245,
was co-named “Firefi ghter
Faizal Coto Way.”
At Coto’s wake in Sunset
Park, he was remembered
for being “everybody’s best
friend.”
“He would fi nd the goodness
in everyone,” one friend
said.
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