New York Daily News

2 held in shoot tied to rapper

- BY THOMAS TRACY

Two men are under under arrest for triggering a rain of bullets inside Midtown restaurant where rogue rapper Tekashi 69 was meeting his new manger, officials said Saturday.

Zachary Bunce, 33, of Wyandanch, L.I., and Faheem Walter, 29, of Manhattan, were both charged early Saturday with gang assault for a shooting Friday 5:50 p.m. at Philippe’s, a tony restaurant at Madison Ave. and E. 59th St.

According to law enforcemen­t sources, the rapper and his new manager were in the restaurant celebratin­g the fact that Tekashi had not been locked up in a sex-abuse case, when Tekashi’s entourage tried to muscle their way in. The manager objected — and his privately hired security turned them away.

After Tekashi left, the spurned crew of four to five men returned to the ritzy eatery, where one of the crew grabbed a chair and slammed it over the head of one of the manager’s security guards — and flashed a gun, the sources said.

The wounded guard, a retired cop, then pulled out his licensed pistol and fired once, hitting Walter in the stomach, cops said. Passersby, meanwhile, ducked for cover as bullets flew.

Holding his bleeding gut, Walter scrambled out of the restaurant and tried to escape in a cab, but was nabbed by cops. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but refused to talk to police, officials said.

The 22-year-old rapper — whose given name is Daniel Hernandez — was celebratin­g a Manhattan Criminal Court judge’s decision to extend his probation on a 2015 charge of using a child in a sexual performanc­e.

Manhattan prosecutor­s have alleged Tekashi repeatedly violated the terms of his original probation sentence in the case, which involved a 13-year-old girl who appeared in one of his videos, and Tekashi could have been sent to prison for one to three years.

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