3 shot dead in under 3 hrs.

Three people were fatally shot in less than three hours Wednesday night as the epidemic of gun violence across New York City showed no signs of abating.

The first fatal shooting occurred just before 8:45 p.m. in Brooklyn’s Flatbush section outside 75 Martense St., where a 20year-old man was shot in the face, cops said.

According to police sources, the man was hanging out with friends celebrating a birthday when they heard shots and his pals noticed he was hit.

The man, whose name was not released, was rushed to Kings County Hospital by a friend but died shortly after, according to police.

Moments later, in the Amsterdam Houses on the Upper West Side, a 44-year-old man was shot eight times, police said.

When police arrived, they found Cedric Bennett lying on the ground with a bloody knife in his right hand, police sources said.

Bennett was taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital but could not be saved.

Less than two hours later, an unidentified man was found shot in the arm, chest and shoulder at West 175th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Washington Heights, cops said.

EMS rushed the 26-yearold man to NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, where he died, according to police.

The three fatal shootings capped another bloody day in the city, with seven shootings and seven victims.

On the same day in 2019, police recorded one more shooting and four more shooting victims — but Sept. 2 last year was Labor Day, historically one of the more violent days of the year in the city.