Cocaine dealer shot nearly a dozen times and killed during robbery at New York birthday party: cops

A cocaine dealer was killed — shot and stabbed nearly a dozen times — during a robbery at a birthday party in Queens over the weekend, police said.

Lenner Zuniga, 35 – who has been arrested 49 times – was shot three times and stabbed eight others when violence erupted shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday in the second-floor apartment on 125th Street near 103rd Avenue in South Richmond Hill, authorities and sources said.

Zuniga – who was arrested on gun and drug charges and had a history of being an emotionally disturbed person – was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries, police and sources said.

“It will be a robbery that may be drug-related,” NYPD Chief Detective Joseph Kenny told reporters on Tuesday.

“Apparently the apartment is some kind of flophouse, a meeting place. The victim and seven to eight other men are there to celebrate a birthday.”

“The [victim] has a reputation for being a cocaine dealer,” Kenny said.

“A fight actually breaks out and the victim runs, locks himself in the bathroom and calls 911. During the 911 call he can be heard pleading. You can hear the shots. And it is believed to be a robbery. His cell phone is missing.”

Investigators believe both cash and drugs were stolen, Kenny said.

The apartment resident told investigators that he went outside to go to the store and when he returned, everyone but the fatally wounded victim was gone, sources said.

First-floor neighbor Alexander Wilson, 51, told The Post on Tuesday he heard a gunshot and then screams from people as they ran out of the building.

“I was sleeping in my bedroom and the only thing I heard was a bang,” Wilson said.

“There was a lot of noise.

He woke up a second time as Zuniga was being carried downstairs on a stretcher.

“I looked out the kitchen window and he didn’t look good,” Wilson said.

“It’s terrible.”

According to Wilson, the victim did not live in the building.

“I was quite shocked when they brought him out on a stretcher. I’ve never seen him before.”

According to Kenny, the apartment is considered “problematic.”

“The neighbors are very familiar with it,” he added.

“Lots of young people [go] there to hang out, loud music, drug use.”

According to New York Police Department Chief Detective Joseph Kenny, a strong person of interest in Zuniga’s murder has been identified, but there is no probable cause to arrest her yet.

According to sources, three 9mm shell casings and two live cartridges were recovered from the scene.