A cocaine dealer was killed – shot and stabbed nearly a dozen times – during a robbery at a Queens birthday party over the weekend, cops said.
Lenner Zuniga, 35 – who has 49 prior arrests – was shot three times and stabbed eight more when the violence erupted just after 3 a.m. Sunday inside the second-floor apartment on 125th Street near 103rd Avenue in South Richmond Hill, authorities and sources said.
Zuniga – who has been arrested on gun and drug-related charges, and has a history as an emotionally disturbed person – was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries, cops and sources said.
“This is going to be a robbery, possibly narcotics-related,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Tuesday.
“Apparently the apartment is kind of a flophouse, it’s a hang-out location. The victim and seven to eight other males are there to celebrate a birthday.”
“The [victim] does have a reputation of being a cocaine dealer,” Kenny said.
“A fight does break out, to where the victim runs and locks himself in the bathroom, and calls 911. During the 911 call, you can hear him pleading. You can hear the gunshots. And it’s believed to be a robbery. His cellphone is missing.”
Investigators believe both cash and drugs were stolen, Kenny said.
The apartment resident told investigators that he stepped out to go to the store and when he returned, everyone was gone except for the mortally wounded victim, sources said.
First floor neighbor Alexander Wilson, 51, told The Post Tuesday he heard a gunshot and then people screaming while they ran out the building.
“I was in my bedroom sleeping and the only thing I heard was a pop,” Wilson said.
“There was a lot of noise.
He woke up a second time when Zuniga was carried downstairs on a stretcher.
“I looked out the kitchen window and he didn’t look good,” Wilson said.
“It’s terrible.”
The victim did not live inside the building, according to Wilson.
“I was kinda shocked when they brought him out in a stretcher. I never saw him before.”
The apartment is known to be “problematic,” according to Kenny.
“Neighbors are very familiar with it,” he added.
“A lot of young people [go] there to hang out, loud music, drug usage.”
A strong person of interest has been identified in Zuniga’s slaying, but there’s no probable cause to arrest them just yet, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
Three 9mm shell casings and two live rounds were recovered at the scene, sources said.
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