A cocaine dealer was killed this weekend — shot and stabbed nearly a dozen times — during a robbery at a Queens birthday party, police said.
Lenner Zuniga, 35 — who has made 49 arrests — was shot three times and stabbed eight times when violence broke out just after 3 a.m. Sunday at 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 charges and has a history of being an emotionally disturbed person — was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries, police and sources said.
“This is going to be a robbery, possibly narcotics related,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters on Tuesday.
“Apparently the apartment is some kind of flophouse, it’s a hangout. The victim and seven to eight other men are there to celebrate a birthday.”
“The [victim] has a reputation of being a cocaine dealer,” Kenny said.
“A fight does indeed break out, where the victim runs away 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 is believed to be a robbery. His cell phone is missing.”
Investigators believe both cash and drugs were stolen, Kenny said.
The apartment resident told investigators he went outside to go to the store and when he returned, everyone was gone except the fatally injured victim, sources said.
Neighbor Alexander Wilson, 51, on the first floor, told The Post on Tuesday that he heard a gunshot and then people screaming as they ran from the building.
“I was sleeping in my bedroom and all I heard was a bang,” Wilson said.
“There was a lot of noise.
He woke up for the second time when Zuniga was being carried downstairs on a stretcher.
“I looked out the kitchen window and he didn’t look well,” Wilson said.
“It’s terrible.”
According to Wilson, the victim did not live in the building.
“I was quite shocked when they brought him out in a stretcher. I’ve never seen him before.”
According to Kenny, the apartment is known to be “problematic.”
“Neighbors know it very well,” he says.
“Lots of young people [go] there to hang out, loud music, drug use.”
A strong person of interest has been identified in Zuniga’s killing, but there is no probable cause yet to arrest him, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
Three 9mm shell casings and two live grenades were recovered from the spot, sources said.
