Bronx shootout that left four wounded sparked by $20 drug debt, started with a punch and slap

A Bronx shootout that left four people wounded, one critically, was sparked by a $20 drug debt and started with a punch and a slap, a police source said Wednesday.

The gunfight erupted outside the Mott Haven Houses on E. 141st St. near Willis Ave. in Mott Haven around 12:30 p.m. Monday, cops said.

The mayhem began when a 39-year-old woman approached a homeless man who had borrowed money from her relative to buy drugs and tried to collect the $20 debt.

Instead of forking over the cash, the 53-year-old man punched her, prompting her to call her boyfriend and a friend for back-up.

The woman’s 38-year-old boyfriend and 41-year-old pal showed up and reached a bizarre agreement that the woman could slap the debtor in the face as payback for the punch, the source said.

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Bu when she slapped him things went sideways and he opened fire on her and her boyfriend, striking her once in the left arm and once in the hip and her boyfriend once in the abdomen.

The boyfriend pulled out his own gun and fired back, striking the homeless man four times in the torso, the source said.

The woman’s pal was shot in his right shoulder but it wasn’t clear who fired that shot.

Medics rushed the homeless man to Lincoln Hospital in critical condition. The other three victims were taken to the same hospital in serious but stable condition.

The woman’s boyfriend has multiple prior arrests for selling drugs and drug possession, the source said. Her friend also had prior drug arrests.

In 1994, the homeless man was arrested for shooting someone during a robbery, the source said.

Nobody has yet been charged for the Monday shooting.