A homeless man was finally arrested Tuesday more than seven years after a Bronx mom was killed by stray gunfire while simply getting dinner for her children, police said.
Jonathan Odenthal, 31, was picked up on an NYPD CrimeStoppers tip around 6 p.m. Tuesday and faces a murder charge in the Jan. 6, 2017, shooting death of Cindy Diaz, 48, authorities said.
Diaz — who had just grabbed food for her four boys at McDonald’s — was struck in the torso and arm around 5:30 p.m. on Boston Road near East Tremont Avenue in West Farms, police said at the time.
She was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital but could not be saved.
“She was an innocent person. All she was doing was getting food for kids,” her children’s tearful father, Angel Rosario, told The Post at the time from the family’s 179th Street apartment.
“It’s horrible; it’s a travesty and all for nothing. I bet when we find out what happened, it’s going to be nonsense.”
Another victim, 18, was shot in the right arm during the burst of violence, police said.
The teen, who a source said had six arrests on his record, was believed to have been the intended target.
He was patched up at Jacobi Hospital, and then questioned at the 48th Precinct stationhouse, where he was uncooperative.
Diaz’s four boys — Liam, 15, and Takis, 14, who attend St. Raymond High School for Boys in Parkchester, and Reino, 13, and Giavanno, 11, all attended St. Raymond Elementary in East Tremont.
“They got good grades. Why? She sat there with them. She used to study with them — that’s why the kids are bright,” Rosario said at the time. “That was her doing.”
The NYPD and the mayor’s office had previously announced a $20,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
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