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A trailblazing Harlem bodega owner was gunned down after she heard shots and ran outside to check on her grandson — leaving her loved ones and community reeling Wednesday.

Excenia Mette, 61, known affectionately as “Zeenie” in her neighborhood, tragically got caught in the crossfire as two men shot at each other outside her apartment building on Lenox Avenue Tuesday night, police and law-enforcement sources said. 

Mette, who founded the city’s first woman- and black-owned bodega, was always ready to offer a tray of food, toys for kids or a sympathetic ear from her stoop, her neighbors told The Post — decrying the senseless violence that killed her. 

“She was a part of the community, always there when you needed her, a confidante, a good cook,” local Sara Lee, 41, said Wednesday. “She was just an awesome woman, and for her to die at 61 years old to gun violence is horrible.

“This could have happened to any one of us. When is it going to stop?”

Mette opened Momma Zee’s Food to Plez Deli in the 1980s, dispensing heaping piles of ribs, chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens and other soul food classics to countless hungry mouths, until the groundbreaking bodega shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic.

The beloved grandmother was in Tamara’s Beauty Bar, a salon on the first floor of her apartment building, at West 113th Street and Lenox Avenue around 10:30 p.m. when she heard a commotion outside, police sources said.

Two men were arguing, and one of them pulled out a gun, prompting the pair to begin wrestling for control of the weapon, the sources said. 

Mette heard two shots and, growing concerned about her grandson’s safety, ran outside to check on him — just as the second man pulled out his own gun and fired, hitting her in the head, according to the sources.

After the gun battle ended, neighbors who had huddled indoors for safety came back outside to see Mette unresponsive on the ground, surrounded by paramedics and her grief-stricken family members.

“Her grandson was screaming, ‘Grandma! Grandma!’” said Nana, 28, a neighbor.

“The bullets weren’t supposed to be for her. Her instincts kicked in – you know your grandson’s out there, your niece is out there, adrenaline kicked in. She had to make sure they were OK.”

Medics rushed Mette to Mount Sinai Morningside, where doctors pronounced her dead, police said.

Cops also found Darious Smith, 23, who was shot in the left foot by the second gunman, at the scene, according to sources.

Smith — who will likely face a firearms charge — was taken into custody and brought to the same hospital as Mette in stable condition, the sources said.

Police believe Smith was arguing with the still-unidentified man who fired the shots that killed Mette, according to the sources.

The second man, at some point, grabbed a gun of his own and fired off shots that wounded Smith and killed Mette, according to the sources. 

A firearm and eight shell casings were found at the scene, according to the sources.

“We have a grandmother that is lost in this community due to a senseless act of violence, and our hearts go out to the family members,” Mayor Eric Adams said as he visited the site of the tragedy Wednesday.

A divorcee, Mette had one son and several grandchildren, in addition to her large extended family, said her cousin Roberta Foote, 61.

Foote said it was in Mette’s character to run into a gun battle to check on her grandson – whom she lived with.

“She was very protective of her grandkids and even her siblings,” Foote said. “She’d be right there with them. Anything go wrong, Zeenie would stop what she was doing and always be there.”

Originally from Peoria, Illinois, Mette opened her pioneering bodega in 1987.

Making food – in New York City and elsewhere – was a family tradition, Mette told amNY in 2020. 

“I always had some little cooking business, usually out in front of the house or from inside the house cooking soul food,” she said. “My grandmother used to sell dinners out of her home. She was named Excenia, I was named after her. She used to sell food to feed the family. My uncle had a deli in Brooklyn years ago, before I even moved to New York City.”

But the bodega fell on hard times during the coronavirus pandemic and eventually closed, despite a GoFundMe and assistance from AriZona Iced Tea.

Mette still remained in her adopted Harlem home, where she was known as a community pillar who worked as a cook at 67 Deli Corp on the same block where she lived.

Her Facebook shows that she recently attended the Rev. Al Sharpton National Action Network’s annual convention, posing for photos with TV star Anthony Anderson and Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Central Park Five and a City Council member.

Neighbor Marella Acevedeo Cruz, 27, said Mette had always been sweet to her children. Just two days ago, the kindly Mette brought Cruz’s kids toys.

“It’s just her being her, just so sweet, asking my kids which ones they liked,” Cruz said. “It’s not fair for us and our kids to see this tragedy. What if my kids go into the store looking for her? What am I going to tell them?”

Foote said she last saw her cousin “Zeenie” roughly a month ago.

“She was just here to bury her brother Kevin,” she said. “Now she’s gone.

“It’s just hard for me to believe it. My prayers go out to her son and her grandkids that God gives them all the strength that they need.”

The deadly gunplay was the latest violence to rattle innocent bystanders in Harlem, where the warring LA World and Wuski gangs sent bullets flying down sidewalks, into playgrounds and through a NYCHA building’s lobby.

Sources said whether Smith has any gang ties is unclear.

Smith’s criminal record includes a June 2024 robbery in which he allegedly swiped e-bike batteries and slashed a good Samaritan who tried to stop him, according to sources.

Court records show he’s scheduled to stand trial on robbery and assault charges starting May 7.

NYPD crime statistics for the 28th Precinct covering the shooting location show nearly all major felonies, including murder, are down so far this year. 

Shooting incidents were down 80% as of April 20 compared to the same period last year, the stats show. 

Adams tied Mette’s slaying with wider crime problems in the city that make innocent New Yorkers bystanders to – and sometimes victims of – violence.

“This community is experiencing gang behavior,” he said, while adding, “We don’t know yet if this was a gang incident.”

— Additional reporting by Emily Crane and Amanda Woods