Moped rider crashes and dies soon after police break off chase in Bx.

A moped rider being pursued by NYPD cops died during a horrific crash near the Bronx Zoo, cops said Wednesday.

The fatality comes as the NYPD wrapped up a massive 10-day crackdown on illegal two-wheeled rides, seizing more than 1,600 mopeds, motorcycles, dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles that were not registered or had improper license plates.

Cesar Alfonso, 34, was riding his gas-powered 2018 Yamaha moped when members of the NYPD Bronx auto larceny squad tried to pull him over at about 9 p.m. Tuesday for having an illegal plate and for riding recklessly, a police source said.

The man refused to pull over and sped off, police said. Cops briefly chased after him but called off the pursuit when he turned the wrong way down a one-way street, speeding down the sidewalk, officials said.

Moments later, the moped rider was heading north on Barker Ave. when he blew a red light at Waring Ave., about a block from the Bronx Zoo, and was struck by a passing Kia driver.

The impact sent the moped rider veering out of control into a parked Honda Pilot. He was thrown from his moped, landing in a heap on the asphalt.

Cops took him into custody, but he began to suffer some kind of medical episode, police sources said. Cops did chest compressions on him before medics rushed him to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died.

“The police called my mother at one this morning, and that’s how we got to know,” said the man’s brother, Roy Deleo. “We are still waiting on what and why actually occurred.”

The 19-year-old woman driving the Kia was not seriously harmed, cops said.

“He was a very compassionate person” Deleo, 36, said of his brother. “He was always there for his family, all the time, no matter what.”

Alfonso lived in the Belmont section of the Bronx with his brother and mother.

“He died from a heart attack. I don’t know how, I don’t know if it was from the accident because he never had problems, he never got sick,” said Eugenio Diaz, Alfonso’s uncle. “He didn’t have no medical issues at all.”

Alfonso worked odd jobs, said the uncle, and had been the caretaker for his mother since he was a teen, bathing and feeding her.

“Every time she was sick, even though she had three children, he was the one who went with her to every appointment,” said Diaz.

“Right now I left her and I came home,” he added. “She doesn’t even want to eat.”

Diaz said while cops initially did not tell the family they were chasing Alfonso, a nurse at Jacobi suggested to the family that they ask for more details and get the whole story.

“They never mention that they were chasing him, they only mentioned that he went through a red light and that he hit a car,” sad Diaz. “They never mentioned that they were trying to arrest him.”

An NYPD investigation into the police pursuit and crash is ongoing.

The pursuit came as the NYPD continue its campaign to rid the city of “ghost vehicles” with fake, stolen or altered license plates. These “ghost vehicles” are often used in crimes, police said.

Just three hours before the crash, four men were shot, one fatally, in the Bronx by two men riding mopeds near E. Mount Eden and Townsend Aves. No arrests have been made in that shooting, which is believed to be gang-related.

The moped rider who fatally crashed had no connection to the shooting, cops said.

Since the start of the year, the NYPD has removed 9,500 scooters, dirt bikes and ATVs from city streets, according to police.

In addition to his mother, Alfonso’s younger brother was also distraught, said the uncle.

“The younger one, we had to restrain him because he was hitting his head on the floor and hitting the wall,” said Diaz. “We had to say stop, it’s not going to bring him back.”