NYPD finally validates ‘Son of Sam’ killer’s first known victim decades later

Since 1976, Wendy Savino has been telling whoever would listen she miraculously survived being shot by “Son of Sam” killer David Berkowitz.

But it wasn’t until this week that a Bronx homicide detective finally validated her claim, filing a shocking report pinning her life-altering April 9, 1976, shooting on Berkowitz — officially making Savino, 87, the serial killer’s first known victim, police sources told The Post.

“I’m so happy that he’s going to be named as my assailant,” said Savino. “For so many years, if somebody asked me what happened to me, and I would say ‘I was shot by Son of Sam’ and it was, ‘Oh right, sure you were.’ So, I am very happy that I am going to be listed as one of his survivors.”

Investigators are confident that, before setting off on his terrifying killing spree in July 1976 with his trusty .44-caliber revolver, a smiling Berkowitz — armed with a .32-caliber gun — walked up to Savino’s car parked behind Nina’s Restaurant on Boston Road in the Bronx.

He began laughing as he fired five times into the vehicle. Savino — the 40-year-old wife of the head of the Bronx’s Republican Party — survived gunshots to her face, back, arm, chest and right eye. She lost the eye.

At the time, The Post reported Savino was critically wounded by a “gunman as she climbed into her car in the parkng lot of a Bronx restaurant.” A man fitting the description of Savino’s shooter “was found murdered near his home, less than two miles from the earlier shooting.”