A Bronx dad was fatally knifed by a road-raging maniac who went berserk on innocent bystanders after a fender-bender — as the victim’s family wonders how they’ll go on without him.
Ronald Gomez-Mesa, 29, stood up to defend himself against as-yet-unidentified man behind the chaotic scrum Tuesday outside a Morris Heights bodega, according to his family and a brutal video obtained by The Post.
The attacker stabbed Gomez-Mesa in the chest, killing him and casting his tight-knit family into despair.
“I don’t know how we will go on,” His sister Ronaysi told The Post.
“No one can imagine the pain we are going through.”
Gomez-Mesa’s mother wailed for hours inside the family home, a stone’s throw from where he died, his sister said.
“He had a daughter, Rosalia, who is turning three this year,” Ronaysi said.
“Whoever killed Ronald took away a loving son, brother and father.”
The senseless violence erupted about 4:30 p.m. after a woman and man got into a minor collision outside Jason Deli and Grocery along West Tremont Avenue and Phelan Place, according to law enforcement sources.
The woman then called her boyfriend, or male friend, who showed up at the scene and started fighting with bystanders gathered nearby, the sources said.
Surveillance video shows a crowd of onlookers outside the bodega watch as a woman wielded a bat and a man skulked around, apparently confronting another man near the crash.
The tense scene escalated when a helmet-wearing man threw something at the skulker, before riding off on a moped, video shows.
The skulking man then turned around and rushed at an apparently uninvolved bystander, shoving him to the ground and lobbing punches, according to the video.
He then attacks a second man – Gomez-Mesa – sitting nearby.
“The killer wanted to jump him, wanted to fight him,” Ronaysi said.
“My brother was defending himself.”
Gomez-Mesa can be seen standing up and throwing punches before he chased the maniac down the street, the video shows.
The attacker then rushed back – flashing a knife, Ronaysi said – and chased Gomez-Mesa down the street and off-camera as others follow.
Police said the attacker stabbed Gomez-Mesa in the chest in front of a day care center on Phelan Place.
Medics rushed Gomez-Mesa – who lives about a half-mile from the scene – to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, cops said.
The suspect in the deadly knifing fled the scene and had not been caught by Wednesday.
Nearly a day later, about 30 lit candles dotted the sidewalk outside the bodega, with the name Ronald spelled out in wax on the sidewalk.
The makeshift shrine included six opened beer cans.
Gomez-Mesa was well-liked in the community, said Rafael Castillo, who manages a bodega near where the senseless violence erupted.
“He was a quiet guy,” Castillo told The Post.
“Everybody loved him.”
Ronaysi said Gomez-Mesa was born in the Dominican Republic as one of seven kids.
He moved to the US when he was 16 and carved out a life in Morris Heights, where he lived with his parents, Ronaysi and her children.
Just a week ago, Gomez-Mesa passed his TLC driver’s license test – an accomplishment he hoped would help him provide for Rosalia, his young daughter.
“He loved his daughter so much,” Ronaysi said.