A cherished family dog struck by a stray bullet that tore through her Queens home has died, her heartbroken owner told The Post.
Arya, a 6-year-old Pomeranian and Husky mix, caught the wayward slug in her hind leg around 1 a.m. last Sunday after it shattered the family’s living room window in Howard Beach.
Although the pooch appeared to be on her way to a miraculous recovery, even walking around on her own three days after multiple surgeries, her injuries proved too severe, and her heart gave out at 1:30 a.m. Friday, four days after she was shot.
“She definitely didn’t deserve this,” Arya’s grieving owner Lisa Murena, 36, told The Post on Sunday.
“She was doing really well. We were optimistic she’d make a recovery — maybe not a full recovery, but a recovery.”
The gunshot pierced Arya’s groin and nicked her colon, police said, a near-miss that left her unable to walk after her initial surgery in Forest Hills, Queens, on Monday, after which she was transferred to Brooklyn Critical Care Vet.
Then at 1:30 a.m. Friday, Lisa and her father, Al Murena, got the devastating news: Arya had died of heart failure.
“It was just too much for her to handle, Lisa said. “She was a beautiful dog.”
After the shooting, NYPD investigators tracked the source of the bullet to a house behind the Murenas’ and interviewed a resident who said her son, Joshua Marte, 18, had recently fled the home.
Cops apprehended Marte, who told them, “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody” — in what NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny called “a spontaneous utterance.”
Neighbors interviewed by The Post in the immediate aftermath of the shooting were shocked and outraged by the incident.
“I’d be livid. Forget about it. My dog is my life. If someone shot her, I would lose my s–t,” said a local canine owner who only gave her first name, Anita, to The Post as she was out walking her pooch, Zoey.
“Why does a teenager even have a gun in the first place?” Anita said. “This block has a lot of kids. It could have been worse. God forbid it hit my dog, it could have hit a kid. It’s crazy. It’s scary.”
Lisa Murena echoed these sentiments Sunday, saying, “Gun laws have to change.
“Guns need to be off the street. More background checks need to be done, change needs to happen,” she said.
Lisa heaped praise on the ASPCA for its compassion throughout the ordeal, with the nonprofit even helping cover Arya’s veterinarian bills.
“They did their part. They were really, really great,” she said.
The Murenas got Arya in 2020 when she was 2 years old.
According to court records, Marte is due in Queens Supreme Criminal Court on May 10. His lawyer, Joseph Nohavicka, did not respond to a request for comment.