The stepson of the elderly Bronx man who was brutally executed on the street in a caught-on-camera slaying that sent shockwaves through the community has been arrested in connection with the killing, law enforcement sources said.
The stepson – who has not been formally charged – was apprehended around 8 a.m. Wednesday in Reading, Penn. more than one week after his stepfather, 80-year-old Marcelino Valerio was fatally shot by a bike-pedaling gunman in the early hours of Sept. 17, sources told The Post.
Bone-chilling surveillance footage showed the black-clad killer with ski mask obscuring their face sidling up next to Valerio and his wife, Luz Collado, on the sidewalk and shooting the man twice in the head at point-black range.
The shooter is thought to have been lying in wait for the couple, who were dropped off in front of 1209 Ogden Ave. in Highbridge around 1:10 a.m. following a Sweet 16 celebration.
“I feel very bad. I feel very sad and it was very harsh. I was right there and it happened so fast,” Collado later told reporters in a statement that was translated from Spanish by her daughter.
“My father was a healthy, strong 80-year-old adored by all family and friends,” Valerio’s daughter, Geraldine Valerio, told The Post.
“He was retired but was always a hardworking family man. If he wasn’t working he was the family’s handyman even as a retiree and he always enjoyed helping,” she continued, adding that her father “never went out late at night, especially alone.”
Valerio, who was originally from the Dominican Republic, lived with his family in the Bronx for over a decade and “never had any concerns” about the area, Geraldine insisted.
“He really didn’t like leaving the house. He was a homebody. My mother would go to family events and he would stay. I was surprised he went to this one,” his other stepson Alex Rodriguez, 43, told The Post.
The Reading Police Department could not immediately be reached for a comment Wednesday morning.