As family members gathered Thursday to mourn for Maria Morales — killed by a hit-and-run driver in Hialeah just two days ago — a police officer approached her son.

Andrés Peña was told an arrest had been made.

He took a deep breath, said Detective Eddie Rodriguez, a Hialeah police spokesman who was at the funeral for the 78-year-old grandmother. Then he turned to the crowd inside the Lowe-Hanks Funeral Home in Hialeah.

He said, Rodriguez recalled, “They got him.”

The arrest capped several emotional days, beginning Tuesday night when Morales was struck and killed as she crossed Le Jeune Road near 11th Place. She had just gotten off a bus and was on her way to visit her family, bringing with her a black bean dish for dinner, police said.

She was almost at the sidewalk when she was hit and killed by a southbound Hyundai Elantra.

Tuesday and Wednesday night, family members and police pleaded to the public for help in finding the driver. They showed pictures of the suspected vehicle from surveillance video in the neighborhood. Rodriguez begged anyone who saw any metallic blue cars matching the description to call.

They got that call Thursday saying it had been seen at a body shop.

Police went to the body shop and looked at the car. The damage matched exactly what police had expected, Rodriguez said, down to a missing side mirror.

They found the car’s owner, 54-year-old Manuel Fernandez. He gave “incriminating statements” to police, Rodriguez said, and was arrested.

He was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident. If convicted, he faces at least two years in jail, Rodriguez said. Thursday night, he was being booked into a Miami-Dade County jail.

“We made a promise to the family we would do everything possible to get closure for them,” Rodriguez said. “Tonight, we’ve done that.”