Man shot dead in Times Sq.; people ‘stampede’

A man was shot and killed steps from Times Square on Thursday as terrified bystanders scattered, police and witnesses said.

Gunfire rang out near the corner of W. 44th St. and Eighth Ave. outside a Shake Shack location around 5:35 p.m., cops and witnesses said.

“There was a stampede of people trying to get away,” witness Will Colon told the Daily News.

The victim was shot in the torso. He staggered about a block south before he collapsed, witnesses told The News.

“It was a couple young dudes who shot him,” said Colon. “His body was laid right out on the sidewalk. He was faceup shaking.”

“It didn’t look like he was going to make it,” Colon said of the victim.

Two gunmen took off on foot south down

Eighth Ave. and made a right turn onto W. 43rd St., sources said.

“When medics got to him he was in cardiac arrest,” a police source added.

Medics rushed him to Mount Sinai West but he could not be saved, police said.

Police were still working to track down the shooters early Thursday night.

The victim’s name was not immediately released.

A man passing by the scene said it was just the latest in violent crime he witnesses living in the neighborhood, where he pays $4,000 in monthly rent.

“This is the area for it,” said filmmaker Chris Williams. “There’s a lot of action on these corners. With the drug dealers, the drug addicts and the homeless, it gets very territorial.”

“I’m not surprised at all,” he added. As Williams, 32, spoke with a Daily News reporter, a homeless man charged the crime scene tape police had set up.

“You want some?” the man screamed at about 10 officers inside the tape, who he had decided he would fight. “Let’s do this!”