Cops have identified the neighbor who they believe shot a Harlem mom in front of her kids as she apparently tried to break up a dispute this week.
Police say Avery Dunning, 35, blasted Jemina Garay, 41, in the head just before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the sixth-floor hallway of NYCHA’s Lincoln Houses on East 135th Street in Manhattan.
Investigators are probing the possibility that Garay was shot when she tried to intervene in a fight, authorities said.
At least some of her children witnessed the shooting, police have said. A neighbor said Garay had at least six kids.
She was struck in the head, stomach and thigh and taken to Harlem Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
Police released a mugshot of Dunning on Thursday night, as well as a surveillance image of him going down the stairs in the building. He was described as wearing a red jacket with black writing on it, and cops say he fled on foot toward Harlem River Drive.
Dunning and Garay both live in the building where the shooting occurred, authorities said.
The victim’s husband identified her during a brief phone call with The Post on Wednesday.
“Nobody’s thinking about the fact that my children are going to see this,” he said while sobbing. “And they’re going to have to relive this over and over again.”
“Her name was J-E-M-I-N-A G-A-R-A-Y, and she was the f–king best,” he added of his wife. “That’s all I’m giving everybody. She was the f–king best.
Tenant Nicole Williams, 52, described Garay as “a good person” who “minds her business.
“I love her,” Williams told The Post on Wednesday. “She’s a mother of at least six children. She’s a very humble person. She don’t bother nobody. Everybody in the building takes their dogs to her. She grooms them. She does everything.”
Another neighbor, Vanessa Gomez, said, “You don’t wake up in the morning thinking this is going to happen.
“My mother was just coming into the building when everything happened, and she called me crying, so I didn’t know if the shooter was in the building.
“We’re used to shootings, but we’re not expecting it in our building with somebody we know,” said Gomez, 40. “[Garay] didn’t bother anybody. That’s why everybody’s in shock. We’re like, ‘How?’ ”