The NYPD detective who helped bring down a fugitive pedophile is a hero, but his mother wants him to lay off the heroics and stay out of harm’s way.
“Everyone told me he is one of the best. He is a first-grade detective,” mom Carmen Muniz told The Post on Tuesday. “He is a hero but I don’t want him to be a hero. I want him to be alive. ”
The doting mother can’t wait until her son, Detective Mario Muniz, leaves Bellevue Hospital, where he’s being treated following a dramatic Greenwich Village gun battle on Monday.
The 45-year-old father of three lives with his family and mother in Richmond Hill, Queens.
“”When my son leaves in the morning (for work), I always say to him, ‘God bless you and be with you, and be careful,’ ” Carmen Muniz said on her way to Bellevue.
“He tells me, ‘Mommy, don’t forget to take your pills, take care of yourself.’ He takes me to the doctor. Whatever I need, he is there. He is a good son.”
She added: “He loves his family. They play in the backyard. He plays baseball with his son.”
Detective Muniz and US marshals hunted down wanted child molester Charles Mozdir on Monday. The fugitive pulled a gun and shot Muniz in the abdomen. The cop was saved by his bulletproof vest.
His mom hopes Detective Muniz will be out of the hospital soon and back home manning the grill.
“He loves to cook — barbecue steak, chicken, hot dog,” she said. “I just sit and eat.”
The detective grew up attending Catholic schools, then went to St. John’s University and joined the NYPD because he “wanted to teach people not to do bad things,” Carmen Muniz said.
“I never had problems with him,” Carmen Muniz said. “He was never in the streets. He was always in the backyard playing with his father.”
The cop’s family is going to throw a big party and great feast when he gets sprung from his hospital bed.
“I just want him to come home. I’m going to put up a sign saying ‘Welcome Home’ and put up balloons and say, ‘Thank God,’” his mom said. “I am going to cook him whatever he wants.”
A steady stream of neighbors who saw Detective Muniz grow up dropped by the house to give their best to his mom.
“That’s my son, too. I love him like my own child,” said Anna Bosquas, an 85-year-old neighbor, who has known Detective Muniz since he was 5.
Bosquas couldn’t hold back tears when talking about the beloved detective.
“I cried when I heard and when I saw the news this morning I was crying,” she said. “Every time I see him, I say, ‘Hello, son,’ and he comes and hugs me.”
Marie Hernandez, a 65-year-old neighbor, also had tears in her eyes when she spoke about Muniz.
“He is a kind person. If anyone needs help, he is there,” Hernandez said. “He knows everyone on the block. ”
Additional reporting by David K. Li