The pregnant woman struck by a stray bullet in New York City this week told The Post how she tried to protect her unborn baby during the ordeal — even if it meant keeping herself in the line of fire — as she decried the rampant gun violence putting innocent bystanders at risk.

Deborah Jimenez, 35, was visiting the Birria-Landia taco truck in a busy commercial strip on Grand Concourse in The Bronx with her 11-year-old daughter, her daughter’s aunt and her daughter’s cousin Monday night when shots rang out.

“My back was turned when I heard the shots,” Jimenez, who is eight months pregnant, recalled from her hospital bed.

“I saw people running, and I started running.”

Jimenez did not realize that she had been struck in her left calf — until she saw blood running down her leg. She described the feeling as a “sting” that was not painful at first.

As she started screaming for help, Jimenez was careful not to throw herself on the ground — even if it meant risking getting shot a second time — so as not to harm her unborn baby girl.

“If I had thrown myself on the floor, I’d have hurt my baby because I’d have hit the ground,” she explained over the phone Wednesday from St. Barnabas Hospital.

“I did not want to hurt my baby.”

Even before first responders got to the scene, a police officer at a nearby Marshall’s jumped in and wrapped a tourniquet around Jimenez’s leg to stop the bleeding, she said.

Her daughter and her daughter’s aunt also came to her side, and helped reassure her until the ambulance arrived.

While Jimenez was grateful she and her loved ones were not seriously hurt, she lambasted the gun violence that has put New Yorkers like herself in the crosshairs as “crazy.”

“It’s unbelievable what’s going on out here,” she said. “You can’t even do anything outside.”

Ismal, a Birria-Landia worker who was on-shift during shooting, recalled customers freezing in panic when four to six shots were fired.

“I saw the lady… she fell right here [in front of the truck],” he said of Jimenez, who took cover between the truck and a car until the good Samaritan came to her aid.

“A random guy came to help me. He said, ‘Relax, relax, we are calling 911,’” Jimenez said.

Jimenez, who works at a law firm, says she will not require surgery, but is in pain and struggling to walk.

“I am blessed,” the mom said. “God was with me. It could have been…my head, my belly [that got shot].”

Her daughter, as well as her daughter’s aunt and cousin, are all “fine” — though she has not allowed them to visit her in the hospital, she said.

Jimenez is eager, however, to reconnect with the man who helped her.

“I wish I could see him and say thank you in person,” she said.

While Jimenez’s spirits are high in anticipation of giving birth next month, she admitted that she is anxious about going back outside.

“I’m nervous to go back outside, but I have to,” she lamented.

Ismal, who started working at the Birria-Landia truck in March 2022, agreed with Jimenez that “It’s dangerous around here.”

“I pay attention. I look around me. You have to do it,” he said, peaking his head out of the truck and looking up and down the street, with also includes a P.C. Richards, a Burlington Coat Factory and the Marshalls.

“I am happy [Jimenez] is fine and her baby is going to be OK and nobody died,” he added.

Jimenez’s employer, Murray Richman of Murray Richman Law Offices, was similarly relieved to hear she was not more seriously injured.

“We are very upset that she was hit,” he told The Post. “It’s just insane. She is approaching her ninth month. We are concerned for her well-being.”