A gay man was shot dead in NYC earlier today by an armed bigot who hurled homophobic slurs at him - and also claimed himself to be the Newton, Conn. killer before killing the man, according to NYPD.

The New York Post reports that the 32-year-old Brooklyn victim, whose name was not released, was walking with a friend on Sixth Avenue near West 8th Street about midnight when they were approached by three Hispanic males, NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

One of the men hurled homophobic slurs at the men and asked them if they were “gay wrestlers,” said Kelly.

The men continued moving and made a right onto West 8th Street and one of the Hispanic men left and the other two continued to follow the victim who was still with his friend.

Both the victim and his friend were wearing tank tops, cutoffs shorts and boots.

“Do you want to die here?” the shooter asked the victim. After asking, he pulled out a .38-caliber and shot him once in the cheek.

“It was a quickie. He shot him and he went straight to the ground,” according to an eyewitness, a bouncer at a nearby club. “Half his body was lying on the sidewalk and half was on the street.”

The man who was brought to Beth Israel Hospital died shortly after being admitted.

Kelly told reporters that “this is clearly a hate crime.”

There have been 22 bias attacks in New York so far this year, up from 13 at the same period last year, according to the commissioner.

After wounding the victim, the shooter ran east and then downtown. Police was able to nab him shortly after on MacDougal and West Third streets.

As soon as the suspect saw the cop car, he tossed his revolver to the ground and surrendered.

He is currently being questioned at the Sixth Precinct but has not been conclusively identified because of a fake ID he possessed.

The shooter appeared crazed and admitted to the shooting after he was apprehended, according to the police.

Twenty minutes before the killing, the suspect had gotten into a confrontation after urinating on the wall of a bar called Annisa, on Barrow and West Fourth streets.

When Annisa’s bartender confronted him, the brute told him that if he called the police, he would shoot him.

“Don’t you know I’m wanted? Do you know about the shooting in Sandy Hook?” he bizarrely told the bartender according to the police commissioner. “I’m a wanted man.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn – who is running to be New York’s first openly gay mayor – said she was horrified to hear about the attack.

“There was a time in New York City when two people of the same gender could not walk the street arm-in-arm without fear of violence and harassment,” said Quinn. “We refuse to go back to that time.”

NYPD is asking for anyone with information about the murder to call Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.