PORT DICKINSON, N.Y. - An upstate New York police officer died early Monday, one day after being hit by a man who police charged with driving drunk.
Aldo Rossi, a 42-year-old part-time officer for the village of Port Dickinson, died at Wilson Regional Medical Center in Johnson City, where he had been in critical condition.
Rossi was waiting for a Department of Transportation crew to remove a tree that had fallen across Route 7 in the village at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, said Broome County Sheriff's deputies. A car pulled over on the shoulder, and Rossi walked over to talk with people inside it when a second vehicle crashed into the parked car and struck Rossi, deputies said.
The driver of that car, Patrick Fitzgerald, and the unidentified occupants of the second vehicle were not injured, deputies said. The accident was still under investigation.
Fitzgerald, 30, of Fenton, was charged with second-degree vehicular assault, a felony, and driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor.
Fitzgerald is a bartender at a Binghamton bar, but police said they didn't know yet whether he was working that night or had stopped somewhere else on the way home. Port Dickinson is just outside Binghamton.
Fitzgerald was arraigned in the Town of Dickinson court and sent to the Broome County Jail pending a bail hearing. Police haven't yet released his blood alcohol content or determined how fast he was going.
Port Dickinson Mayor Kevin Burke said Rossi had been a part-time patrolman with the village since April 2007 and worked for the Village of Deposit. He had befriended many residents and fellow police officers because of his outgoing nature, Burke said. Rossi was also a Binghamton businessman and owned Budget Auto Glass.
"He loved to talk with people. He knew people's names. He helped people," Burke told The Press & Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton. "People here are very fond of him."
Rossi was waiting for a Department of Transportation crew to remove a tree that had fallen across Route 7 in the village at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, said Broome County Sheriff's deputies. A car pulled over on the shoulder, and Rossi walked over to talk with people inside it when a second vehicle crashed into the parked car and struck Rossi, deputies said.
The driver of that car, Patrick Fitzgerald, and the unidentified occupants of the second vehicle were not injured, deputies said. The accident was still under investigation.
Fitzgerald, 30, of Fenton, was charged with second-degree vehicular assault, a felony, and driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor.
Fitzgerald is a bartender at a Binghamton bar, but police said they didn't know yet whether he was working that night or had stopped somewhere else on the way home. Port Dickinson is just outside Binghamton.
Fitzgerald was arraigned in the Town of Dickinson court and sent to the Broome County Jail pending a bail hearing. Police haven't yet released his blood alcohol content or determined how fast he was going.
Port Dickinson Mayor Kevin Burke said Rossi had been a part-time patrolman with the village since April 2007 and worked for the Village of Deposit. He had befriended many residents and fellow police officers because of his outgoing nature, Burke said. Rossi was also a Binghamton businessman and owned Budget Auto Glass.
"He loved to talk with people. He knew people's names. He helped people," Burke told The Press & Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton. "People here are very fond of him."
