#NYC shooting victim may have saved boyfriend’s life by shoving him out of the way of bullets

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Police at the scene where two people were shot on Fifth Avenue at E26th Street
Christopher Sadowski

The woman who was fatally shot in Flatiron early Friday morning may have saved her boyfriend’s life by pushing him out of a bullet’s path, the bereft beau said.

Erica Lopez, 19, who was killed just outside of Madison Square Park, tried to shove her boyfriend, Andres Arias, 21, to safety when the gunman opened fire on the two around 12:30 a.m., Arias told the Daily Mail.

Arias managed to suffer only a minor wound during the shooting.

“Erica pushed me out of the way, and one bullet went through her chest and grazed me through the left side of my ribs,” he told the tabloid.

The gunfire rattled an otherwise quiet, posh neighborhood and happened as the two sweethearts celebrated the birthday of Arias’ cousin’s boyfriend at 230 Fifth Rooftop, a rooftop bar nearby, the Mail reported.

Arias, Lopez and others in the birthday group of some 10 people had struck up a friendly conversation with another group of six men and women at the bar, he said.

The pleasant encounter turned sour when one of the women they had just met groped Lopez and another woman in the party.

“She was drunk. My girlfriend told me she was touching their butts, without their consent,” Arias told the outlet.

The two groups started arguing after Arias confronted them — that’s when he and Lopez reportedly decided to leave.

The two were talking about the encounter as they were walking on West 26th Street when they realized they were being followed by the group in two vehicles.

They began arguing again until a man in one of the two vehicles hopped out and opened fire on them.

Arias, who was taken to Bellevue Hospital with Lopez and is now recovering at home, told the Mail he broke down at the facility when he heard Lopez had passed.

“I told the nurses to leave the room, then I started screaming and crying,” Arias said.