B’klyn slay vic ‘always gave a helping hand’

A 27-year-old man shot to death outside a Brooklyn club, likely as revenge for defending a waitress there from harassment, was the type to help those in need, his family said Sunday.

“He always gave a helping hand,” Kevin Virgo's grieving father, Ainsley, told the Daily News. “He was always looking out for the weaker person.”

Friday night, a man pulled Virgo out of the Atlantic Boat Club in Prospect Heights, where Virgo was a regular reveler, and urged him to go around the corner — where a gunman was waiting, witnesses said.

Virgo was arguing with at least three men when the gunman shot him in the chest, stomach and upper right thigh. He died at Brooklyn Hospital Center.

Police on Sunday released surveillance video of Virgo's suspected killer. The blurry video shows the man blasting a gun, then running away with several other people.

Witnesses told cops they suspect Virgo was shot because about two weeks ago he defended the honor of a club waitress being harassed by a group of men. When the men refused to let the woman leave, Virgo told them to stop bothering her. He argued with the group and knocked one of the goons out with one punch, restaurant workers said.

Employees worried the men Virgo fought with would seek revenge.

Virgo spent his days working at a Brooklyn hardware store and taking care of his 9-year-old daughter, relatives said. “Kevin was a great kid. Everybody loved him,” his dad, 58, said. “He caused no trouble or nothing. He was a nice boy . . . He would take (his daughter) to school every day.”

Ainsley Virgo said he spoke to his son hours before his death, when the younger Virgo took his mother to Kennedy Airport.

In a cruel twist of fate, his mother was going to Chicago for her sister's funeral. Now she faces the prospect of having to plan her son's burial.

“Everybody can't believe this happened,” the father said. “He was always smiling, always telling his jokes.”

Virgo's father urged the gunman to come forward.

“Turn yourself in or I'm going to find them,” he said.

Murders are up 6.5% this year through Oct 28, with 247 homicides citywide compared to 232 during the corresponding period last year, according to NYPD stats.

Anyone with info on Virgo's slaying is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.