Bash of pal in drug fight turns fatal

A Brooklyn man irate he couldn’t afford cocaine kicked and punched a pal, killing him, police and witnesses said Tuesday.

Luziano (Panama) Hinks, 40, pushed Patrick O’Brien, 63, near Junius St. and East New York Ave. in Brownsville about 11:30 a.m. Saturday, police sources said. O’Brien briefly got up and started to walk away but collapsed, surveillance video obtained by cops shows.

A witness said the two men were fighting over drugs.

“I was close,” recalled Rashein White. “(Hinks) did beat him up. With his hands. He was kicking him, too.”

Hinks, who deals drugs, was upset O’Brien purchased drugs from another dealer, according to White, who lives in the same shelter as the two men around the corner from where O’Brien was attacked. “He wanted Patrick to buy from him so he could get some money to get the coke,” White said.

A witness called 911, and medics rushed the doomed O’Brien to Brookdale University Hospital, where he died. The city medical examiner deemed the death a homicide due to a ruptured spleen, cops said.

Police nabbed Hinks at a deli at about 5:30 p.m. Monday. Video obtained by the Daily News shows NYPD detectives making the arrest. Hinks was arraigned and charged with assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor, at Brooklyn Criminal Court Tuesday.

“The defendant struck the deceased from behind,” said prosecutor Tatiana Rugel.

Bail was set at $26,000 in part due to a former felony conviction for burglary. Hinks told detectives he didn’t kick the victim but “ran right through him,” according to police sources.

He admitted he lashed out in anger because he wasn’t able to get his drugs, sources say.

Hinks has a prior criminal record. Last February, he sued the city Correction Department, arguing officers failed to protect him from an angry gang member who slashed him on Rikers Island. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount.

Hinks was in jail due to a violation of an order of protection.