Graffiti News

A new portrait gives Astoria a place to remember

A mural honoring New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Captain Alison Russo was unveiled in Astoria, Queens, on Saturday afternoon, October 17, 2026. According to the New York Post, more than 40 EMS and FDNY personnel joined grieving relatives at 40-19 20th Avenue, across from Fire Station 49. The gathering brought family and emergency-service colleagues together around a public image of the captain.

Artists Benny Guerra and Fernando Garcia revealed an LED-lit portrait above a banner bearing the words “Never Forgotten Forever a Hero.” The wording identifies the image as a memorial, while the portrait gives that remembrance a face. For people following murals and public art, the important starting point is the relationship between the subject and the location. The address is part of the story the artwork tells, alongside the painted image and its dedication.

The memorial recalls a captain killed in 2022

Russo was a September 11, 2001, first responder who was killed at age 61 during her lunch break on September 29, 2022, the New York Post reported. The newspaper described the stabbing by Peter Zisopoulos as a random attack. Zisopoulos was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced in 2025 to 25 years to life in prison. Those facts explain the loss behind the memorial without displacing the person the portrait honors.

At the unveiling, Russo’s brother Craig Fuoco told the newspaper that support from the community and the FDNY mattered to the family. He described the four years since her death as long and said she would not be forgotten. His account connects the banner’s message to the relatives gathered below it. The unveiling was therefore both the presentation of an artwork and an occasion for people who knew Russo to share a place of remembrance with her colleagues.

The direction of the face carries meaning

The portrait faces the station so ambulance crews can see Russo smiling as they leave or return, building owner William “Zac” Zaccari told the New York Post. Zaccari said Russo was killed directly in front of the property and that her attacker had lived upstairs. In his account, the wall’s relationship to the killing and to the station makes the placement especially consequential.

Zaccari also described wanting the memorial to be a celebration. That intention is expressed through the direction of the face: the image addresses people moving through their working day. A viewer looking only at a close photograph could miss that relationship across the street. Seen in its surroundings, the mural connects a fixed portrait with the repeated journeys of ambulance crews. Remembering Russo becomes part of a route her colleagues continue to use, rather than something confined to an unveiling ceremony.

The address and station provide the viewing context

The reported location is 40-19 20th Avenue in Astoria, opposite Fire Station 49. For a visit, those two reference points help explain both where to look and how to read the work. The New York Post identifies LED lighting as part of the mural, but supplies no lighting schedule or visiting hours. A particular illuminated appearance at a particular time should therefore not be assumed.

Visitors interested in public art can consider the portrait, the dedication and its orientation together. The station is an operational setting, so photographs and viewing should leave ambulance movements and personnel’s work unobstructed. The memorial also deserves the attention given to a place connected to a family’s loss. Its significance lies in how an image, a specific address and a community of colleagues meet. For mural followers, the Astoria work offers a concrete example of public remembrance shaped by the everyday activity around a wall.

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Source: New York Post