A heartbroken dog owner told the newspaper that his beloved dog was killed when a stray bullet hit his home in Queens.
Aria, a 6-year-old Pomeranian-husky mix, caught a wayward slug with her hind legs when it was released from her Howard Beach family’s living room window around 1 a.m. last Sunday.
The dog appeared to be on the road to a miraculous recovery, still roaming alone three days after multiple surgeries, but his injuries proved too severe and he died at 1 a.m. Friday, four days after being shot. At 1:30 p.m., his heart stopped. .
“She definitely didn’t deserve this,” Aria’s grieving owner Lisa Murena, 36, told the Post on Sunday.
“She was doing really well. We were optimistic that she would recover — maybe not a full recovery, but she did.”
Police said the gunshot went through Aria’s groin and injured her colon, leaving her unable to walk after initial surgery Monday in Forest Hills, Queens, and then at a critical care veterinarian in Brooklyn. was transported to.
Then, at 1:30 a.m. on Friday, Lisa and her father Al Murena received the shocking news that Alia had died of heart failure.
“It was too much for her to bear,” Lisa said. “She was a beautiful dog.”
After the shooting, NYPD investigators traced the source of the bullet to the house behind the Murenas and interviewed a resident who said her son, Joshua Marte, 18, had recently fled the home.
Police arrested Marte, who said he “didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” which NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney called a “spontaneous statement.”
Neighbors interviewed by the Post shortly after the shooting were shocked and outraged by the incident.
“I’d be furious. Don’t worry about it. My dog is my life. If someone shoots me, I’ll lose my life,” said a local dog owner while walking his dog Zoe. inside, she told the Post, giving only her first name, Anita.
“Why do teens have guns in the first place?” Anita said. “There are a lot of kids on this block. It could have been much worse. There’s no way I could have hit my dog, it could have hit a child. That’s crazy. That’s scary.”
Lisa Murena echoed those sentiments on Sunday, saying, “Gun laws have to change.
“Guns need to be off the streets. We need more background checks and we need to make changes,” she said.
Lisa praised the ASPCA for showing compassion throughout the ordeal, including helping the nonprofit pay for Alia’s veterinary fees.
“They did their part. They were really, really great,” she said.
Mr. and Mrs. Murenas welcomed Alia in 2020 when she was two years old.
Marte is scheduled to appear in Queens Supreme Criminal Court on May 10, according to court records, but his attorney, Joseph Nojawicka, did not respond to a request for comment.
