Tears for mom
FOUR BOYS stood in front of a memorial inside their Bronx apartment to wish their mom a Happy Mother’s Day — even as they waited for closure in her killing.
“I haven’t heard from the detectives since January,” their father, Angel Rosario, 52, told the Daily News on Sunday. “My sons deserve closure.”
Cindy Diaz, 48, was just two blocks from home when she was fatally shot in the chest by a bullet that cops say was intended for someone else. Diaz was carrying food for her children from McDonald’s when she was gunned down on E. Tremont Ave. near Boston Road about 5:40 p.m. on Jan. 6.
Rosario was dreading Sunday, the first Mother’s Day since Diaz’s death. He wasn’t sure how to approach his sons.
“I had to bring it up,” he told The News through tears. “There’s no getting around it. I can’t hide it. I asked them if they wished their mother a Happy Mother’s Day.”
The sons — Liam, 15; Takis, 14; Reino, 13, and Giovanno, 12 — each said yes.
The family held a small vigil with flowers and candles in their living room for their mom, who was cremated. Each child placed a pink rose in a vase during the emotional ceremony.
“We have a beautiful spot there,” Rosario said. “I need to keep her dreams alive for the kids.”
Despite their grief, the two oldest boys have recently been lauded for their good grades in school, Rosario proudly points out.
“Those are the things she didn’t get to see,” lamented Rosario, who was separated from Diaz for several years before her murder.
Cops have offered a $10,000 reward for the arrest of the gunman, who was allegedly targeting a young man standing near Diaz. The suspect was caught on video walking away from the scene.
Officials say the investigation is ongoing.
The stretch of Boston Road where the killing occurred has long been a gang battleground, Rosario said, noting the family had been looking to move from the neighborhood for the past six years.
So he’s pressing the NYPD to boost safety in the area, with more security lights, extra cops on patrol and additional surveillance cameras.
None of that will bring Diaz back, but it may help prevent a future tragedy, Rosario said. “The guy has not been apprehended, and there aren’t better cameras there yet,” he said.
“We can’t stop the guns,” he added. “Everybody has guns. That’s forever. But let’s try to do something to get people to keep them in their pockets.”
The 8-second surveillance video clip captured by a store camera near the scene of the shooting shows the suspect wearing blue jeans, a dark waist-length coat and a dark hat.
The target of the attack was chased onto the sidewalk near Diaz and was grazed by a bullet, police said. The unnamed wounded man has refused to cooperate with investigators, according to police sources. Police do not know the motive for the shooting. But Rosario believes it involved a petty gang dispute. The family is still grappling with the loss.
“I never expected this to ever happen to me,” Rosario said. “I expected her to be here forever.”
He uses a taxi to take the two youngest children to school each day so that they no longer have to walk past where their mom was gunned down.
“She was a supermom,” Rosario recalled. “She was one of those moms who would do anything for her kids.”