A disgruntled worker killed one man and wounded seven others in a Friday morning shooting spree on the crowded sidewalks outside the Empire State Building, cops and witnesses said.
The cold-blooded killer, wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase, pumped a pair of fatal bullets into one victim near the 33rd St. entrance to the skyscraper, a witness told the Daily News.
Seven others were wounded, none too seriously, before the shooting stopped just after 9 a.m.
The killer, after casually strolling away from the murder scene, was gunned down in a Fifth Ave. confrontation with the cops.
The streets around the iconic midtown building were choked with emergency vehicles, and witnesses reported bloody victims calling for help after the shooter squeezed off at least a dozen shots.
The shooting was apparently sparked by a dispute between co-workers at a business located inside the Empire State, sources told the Daily News.
Construction worker Chris Ogden was working on a scaffold above the building’s 33rd St. entrance when he watched in disbelief as the well-dressed gunman opened fire.
“He shot the guy in the head,” said Ogden, 23. “The guy went down. He took a second shot when he was down.”
The shooter then “walked down the block, like nothing was happening, real casual,” Ogden said. “We were screaming from the top, ‘It’s the guy in the grey suit!’”
The gunman then turned the corner onto Fifth Ave., where he was shot to death by cops.
“The shot rang out, and everybody started running,” said another witness, a 40-year-old truck driver. “Oh man, there must have been 12 or 13 shots. It was amazing.”
Witness Steve Vaccaro said bleeding victims were lying in the street ouside the 102-story building as bystanders stood gaping.
Among the wounded was a Bronx mother of two headws to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts when the shooting started. Her friend, Chris Collins, was aboard an express bus when he spotted her splayed across Fifth Ave. near 35th St.
“I saw her bleeding,” said Collins, 44, of the Bronx. “She was saying, ‘I don’t want to die.’ She said she was walking, and all of a sudden there was a ‘pop-pop-pop’ sound.”
The terrified victims, with gunshot wounds to the legs, buttocks and elbows, were all expected to survive the shooting.
FBI agents were on the scene, but law enforcement sources said there was no apparent evidence that the shooting had any link to terrorism.