Gunman shoots 3 in Midtown altercation

Three people were shot — including two innocent bystanders — on a crowded Midtown street Sunday afternoon, police said.

The incident happened outside the Herald Square Spirits liquor store at 34 W. 31st St., along a block lined with hotels, at around 4:45 p.m., according to police.

Two suspects were being sought, one of whom is the gunman.

The two men had been walking toward Fifth Avenue when they started arguing with a person behind them — identified by friends as Ahmend Kabia, 43 — whom they apparently knew from a prior dispute.

“Two days ago, there was a fight,” explained Kabia’s longtime pal, James Lamiel, 29.

“The guy that came with the gun, he was beat up, and he said, ‘I will come back . . . I will come and shoot you.’ Everyone thought it was a joke.”

As the two men were arguing with Kabia outside the liquor store, one of them opened fire — striking him and two bystanders, identified as Abdoulaye Kane, 25, and Adrian Burduja, 29.

Kane was struck in the left arm, while Burduja caught a stray bullet in his back, according to sources. Kabia took a bullet in the right shoulder, sources said.

All three men were taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition and were expected to survive.

The gunplay shocked tourists staying in hotels along the street and locals who work nearby.

“I don’t know if we picked a bad hotel or what,” said a Florida tourist who identified herself only as Nicole, and who heard the shots from the roof of the Hyatt across the street, where she is staying with her 9-year-old daughter.

Fred Wiener, a 65-yearold lawyer who works in the area, was frightened.

“My office is right over on the corner,” he said. “I’m rather spooked. It’s not as safe a neighborhood as we thought it was.”