A hero’s farewell
Boro mourns Bravest killed on Belt Parkway at Sunset Park funeral
GONE TOO SOON: (Clockwise from above) Mourners including hundreds of New York’s Bravest came out to grieve their fallen comrade, fi refi ghter
Faizal Coto of Coney Island’s Engine 245, at his funeral in Sunset Park on Dec. 13. A fi re truck transported Coto’s body, enclosed in a fl ag-draped coffi n,
to his fi nal resting place at Green-Wood Cemetery. A motorcade that included bagpipers joined the truck carrying Coto’s body in a funeral procession
to the graveyard. Photos by Trey Pentecost
COURIER LIFE, D DT EC. 21–27, 2018 3
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Hundreds of New York’s Bravest
gathered on Dec. 13 to bid
farewell to their colleague
whom offi cials suspect a man
killed days before, amid an apparent
fi t of road rage on the
Belt Parkway that turned fatal.
Family, friends, and fellow
fi refi ghters came out to Sunset
Park’s Leone Funeral Home
to honor to 33-year-old Faizal
Coto — a Ditmas Parker who
served with Coney Island’s Engine
245 — packing the venue
to the brim so they could pay
their respects to the hero who
died while off-duty on Dec. 9,
according to a Fire Department
spokesman.
The Department’s chaplain
Rev. Ann Kansfi eld presided
over the funeral service,
whose attendees included Fire
Department Commissioner
Daniel Nigro and Coto’s family,
including his brother and
fellow fi refi ghter Gabe Coto, of
Park Slope’s Engine 220.
Following the service,
mourners placed the deceased’s
fl ag-covered coffi n on
top of the fi re truck of his Engine
245, which joined a motorcade
that drove down Fourth
Avenue from 21st Street to 25th
Street, before taking the Bravest
to his fi nal resting place
at Green-Wood Cemetery, the
Fire Department spokesman
said.
Days before the funeral, authorities
with New York’s Finest
and the United States Marshal’s
Fugitive Task Force
caught up with the 29-yearold
Staten Islander suspected
of killing Coto in New Jersey
and apprehended him on Dec.
10.
And on Dec. 18, District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez charged
Joseph Desmond with seconddegree
murder for killing
Coto.
“We allege that this defendant
viciously and senselessly
attacked a dedicated and beloved
city fi refi ghter who was
committed to public service,”
Gonzalez said in an indictment.
“There is no place on
the streets of Brooklyn for
such mindless violence.”
The suspect’s and fi refi ghter’s
vehicles collided as each
merged onto the Gravesendbound
side of the parkway, according
to prosecutors, who
claimed both drivers pulled
over on the side of the road
near Exit Four at 14th Avenue
and Bay Eighth Street after
bumping into each other.
A motorist who passed Coto
while traveling in the opposite
direction saw him in distress
and drove to the scene, where
the witness called 911, Gonzalez
alleged.
Paramedics responding to
the 911 call then arrived with
offi cers from the 62nd Precinct,
and pronounced Coto
dead, according to the top
prosecutor, who said the victim
died from a fatal blow to
his left temple after the city’s
medical examiner previously
pronounced that Coto died
from blunt force trauma to the
head.
The victim allegedly sustained
multiple skull fractures
that left him hemorrhaging in
the attack, prosecutors said.
Police and United States
Marshals identifi ed their suspect
with help from cameras
along the Belt Parkway, which
captured the license-plate
numbers on his Infi niti sedan,
according to Gonzalez.
Law-enforcement sources
involved in Desmond’s arrest
previously told this newspaper
that he is a gang member,
and was wanted for a separate
parole violation at the time authorities
cuffed him.
Supreme Court Justice
Vincent Del Giudice ordered
the Staten Islander be held
without bail, and he will return
to court on March 1, the
district attorney said.