By: William Kaempffer , Journal Register News Service
09/10/2008

NEW HAVEN - A city police sergeant was killed and a patrol officer critically injured late Tuesday after their cruisers collided while responding to a domestic dispute in Fair Haven.
Sgt. Dario "Scott" Aponte, 43, died in the crash and Patrol Officer Diane Gonzalez, 47, was critically injured.

About 100 police officers congregated at the police station and hospital overnight.

"I've been through this several times. You'd think maybe it might get easier, but it doesn't. At least for me it seems to get tougher," said Police Chief James Lewis, whose voice broke as he described at a morning press conference the emotional toll of losing a police officer. "When you spent the evening with the family in the hospital, it's hard to describe. It's like losing a family member."

Aponte, a 17-year veteran, had been promoted to sergeant in July after about four years as a detective. He had started his shift an hour earlier when a 911 caller reported a violent domestic dispute in the middle of Maltby Street.

"He's going to kill her," the caller told the 911 center as screams could be heard outside the woman's house. Police played the 911 tape at the press conference.

Aponte and Gonzalez were en route to the call with lights and sirens activated when at 11:27 p.m. they collided at high speed at the intersection of Chapel and East streets, a few blocks east of where Officer Dan Picagli was fatally struck in 2006 while directing traffic in Wooster Square.

Tuesday, one cruiser wound up on top of a third, civilian vehicle, while the other cruiser spun and then careened through a fence and down a small hill.

Officers first arriving at the crash found their badly injured colleagues and made urgent calls for medical assistance. Aponte was partially ejected from his cruiser and was rushed to the hospital first. It took members of the Fire Department about 30 minutes to extricate Gonzalez, whose cruiser went down the hill. She remained hospitalized Wednesday at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where her condition was extremely serious, Officer Joseph Avery said.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr. arrived at Yale-New Haven Hospital shortly after midnight.

Aponte was the father of two young children, including a four-month-old, with his police officer wife, Donna. He had two children previously, police said. Gonzalez has three children and a grandchild.

Aponte joined the department in November 1991 and was promoted to detective in April 2004. He worked in the crime scene unit until his promotion to sergeant in July, when he switched to the overnight patrol shift.
The department has 260 patrol officers; 231 are assigned to the patrol division.