The maniac accused of ruthlessly knifing a beloved FDNY EMS lieutenant to death did a bizarre stint on the stand at his murder trial Friday — and chillingly showed no emotion when confronted with videos of the horrific, random attack.
Peter Zisopoulos, 36, stared intensely into the gallery in Queens Supreme Court — packed with teary-eyed EMS personnel — as prosecutors played footage of a man knocking over 9/11 first-responder Alison Russo-Elling, getting on top of her and stabbing her 19 times on an Astoria sidewalk.
“It may look like a past picture of mine,” Zisopoulos, seemingly unfazed by the brutal videos, admitted on the stand.
The alleged killer denied being the man in the video, saying the corner where the savage 2022 attack took place looked “a little bit” familiar.
The video showed the killer enter Zisopoulos’ Astoria apartment building, but he replied “I don’t know” when asked if the attacker went into the unit he shared with his mother.
Trial attendees — who included Russo-Elling’s grieving daughter — wept openly as the two graphic videos played.
The courtroom gallery became exasperated, with some rolling their eyes, as Zisopoulos was repeatedly caught in apparent lies during his testimony.
For instance, Zisopoulos — dressed in an orange Department of Correction jumpsuit and sporting black eye-glasses — claimed he was asleep in his apartment when Russo-Elling, 61, was killed while on her lunch break, just a half-block from her stationhouse Sept. 29, 2022.
Prosecutors pointed out that Zisopoulos told The Post in a jailhouse interview a year after the murder that he had been home watching “Star Wars” and that surveillance video of the attack was “photoshopped” to frame him.
He’d apparently given police a third version, saying he’d woken up at 8 a.m., eaten breakfast, watched the news and then gone back to sleep, until he was awoken by cops knocking at his door.
“You gave an interview to a New York Post reporter, and you told the New York Post reporter that you were watching Star Wars. So just to be clear, you told the police that you were watching the news, you told a reporter that you were watching ‘Star Wars’ and you now told all of us that you were just sleeping?” Queens Assistant District Attorney Johnathan Selkowe pressed.
“Those are all three different things.”
Zisopoulos simply responded: “Yes.”
The accused killer was also tripped up when he Selkowe asked him how he had sustained a fresh cut on his hand the day of the crime.
On the stand, Zisopoulos claimed he was knifed by police officers after he refused to open the door for them.
“I didn’t answer because I don’t trust them. The police are really mean to me,” Zisopoulos said when questioned by his public defender, Gina Mitchell.
“They called SWAT & SWAT stabbed my hand. I tried to cover the peephole and they push the knife through the peephole,” he ranted. “I bled out and SWAT opened the door.”
But the prosecutor pointed out that Zisopoulos had told cops his hand was sliced a month earlier, but that the wound had recently reopened.
Selkowe also pushed Zisopoulos on his reasoning for trying to leave cops waiting in his hallway, getting the alleged killer to admit he had a knife in his pocket at the time.
“You understood that if the police came in, they would find the man with the knife?” the prosecutor asked.
Zisopoulo answered: “Yes.”
When asked if it was the same knife used to kill Russo-Elling, rather than one he used to eat breakfast, Zisopoulos could only answer, “I don’t know.”
His lawyers tried to move for the case to be dismissed, saying prosecutors did not provide evidence to prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt, a move that sent shock through the courtroom.
The bid was promptly rejected and court dismissed. Jury deliberations will begin on Monday.
“I can’t believe this guy has the nerve to deny all of this, when it’s clear as day from multiple different angles what occurred,” the victim’s daughter, Danielle Russo, told The Post after court. “It’s a real shame that he’s walking the earth, and among us.”
She said the weekend break was a welcome one, and expressed hope she would return Monday to see Zisopoulos convicted.
“Hopefully this man never sees the sun outside in the free world ever again,” Russo said.
“Just can’t wait for my family to get justice and this be at rest,” she continued. “It’s pretty difficult to even see him up there and act so nonchalant about such a vicious and savage attack that he just denies and says he was sleeping through. It’s unreal.”
Russo added, “It’s actually pretty sad to see the person that he took from us and everything she’s done and contributed to the community and everything she did throughout her life — and how someone like this can just not care at all. It’s really disturbing.”
