Two held in shoot of Army veteran

Two gangsters are charged in the Harlem shooting of a U.S. Army veteran who got shot when he tried to shield children from a shootout, police said Friday.

Jabari Albright, 18, and Mikeli Pettaford, 20 — members of the Chico gang — were busted for the July 13 gunfire that bought Tony Grier, 59, a bullet to the abdomen on 5th Ave. near W. 118th St., police said. Albright was arrested later that night and Pettaford was cuffed on Thursday.

Grier, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, was taking some cardboard boxes out of a friend’s deli when he saw a group of men hovering outside the Prince Deli & Grocery.

Grier and a witness said the crew saw their intended target show up down the block wearing a ski mask and a white T-shirt draped over his head.

That’s when the gunfire started. “I heard [bullets] whiz by my head,” Grier told the Daily News. “I looked at the owner and I said, ‘What are we going to do?’ You know? We looked over and all the kids were scrambling ... So yeah, I took the hit.”

Albright has four prior arrests and Pettaford has three, police said. They are charged with attempted murder.