BRONX MOM DIES PROTECTING HER SON!

She lived for her son - and died protecting him.
The heartbroken sister of Aisha Santiago, the Bronx woman shot to death while shielding her 9-year-old son from a hail of bullets, choked back tears today as she spoke about her beloved sibling's heroic final act.

"It didn't surprise me because that's the kind of person that she is," said a weeping Tanisha Santiago. "She threw him in the building and by the time she threw him (the bullet) caught her."

"She was doing what she had to do for her son."

Aisha Santiago, 25, was walking home from a laundromat Tuesday afternoon when gunshots suddenly erupted between two groups of men running along E. 146th St.

She pushed her son, Anthony, to safety moments before she was shot in the back and collapsed in front of her terrified boy.

"He seen the whole thing happen in front of his face," said Tanisha Santiago. "He's in a state of shock right now. He's really nervous (and) he doesn't understand why this happened to his mom."

"He thinks stuff like this only happens on TV," she said.

Devoted to her family and wanting to help others, Aisha Santiago, a graduate of Evander Child High School, took a job a few months ago at the same social service agency where her mother worked assisting people entering rehabilitation, her sister said.

"She was happy, full of life," Tanisha Santiago said. "Everybody loved her."

Aisha's mother heard the gunshots and ran from the family home in the Betances Houses but could not help her unconscious daughter, witnesses said.

"Her mother came - she was crazy, fainting, throwing up," said a friend who gave his name as Lyte. "She couldn't handle it."

Investigators believe the shootout was between two rival gangs though it was not immediately clear what sparked the gun battle.

An unidentified 25-year-old man was shot in the leg and is in stable condition at Lincoln Hospital. The wounded man is believed to have played a role in the shootout and is likely to be arrested, police sources said.

Tanisha Santiago raged against all of the suspects involved in the shootout that claimed her innocent sister's life.

"I hope you son of b----es get caught," she said. "You not only took away my sister, you took away my mother's youngest child. I hope you are prosecuted to the fullest extent and get whatever you deserve."