A 40-year-old panhandler was shot dead inside a Midtown 7-Eleven after he held the door open for the gunman and asked him for money Thursday morning, cops and sources said.

The victim was blasted in the neck around 10:30 a.m. inside the convenience store on Eighth Avenue near West 39th Street, cops said.

He was pronounced dead minutes later by EMS workers at the scene.

Before the shooting, the victim had been holding the door open for customers in hopes of getting money, the sources said.

Another man said something to the door-holder as he entered the store, according to the sources.

The victim then followed the aggressor inside as tensions flared, the sources said.

At one point, the victim grabbed a bottle off a shelf — appearing as though he was about to throw it at the other man — before the gunman opened fire, according to the sources.

The shooter — last seen wearing a face mask, green jacket, dark pants and a black backpack — fled on foot, heading south on Eighth Avenue, the sources said.

Both the shooter and the victim were known to hang out in the area and to knew each other, according to the sources.

Hours after the shooting, a gray puffer jacket, what appeared to be a rolled-up sleeping bag and a full LotLess bag could be seen outside the 7-Eleven. 

All of those items belonged to the victim, according to Leroy Simmons, who works at a nearby Pret A Manger and said he heard the commotion after the daytime burst of gunfire. 

“I heard a pop, and then people started coming, and that’s about it,” Simmons said. “The store was crowded. When I had time I went to look, and I saw all the ambulances, the police.” 

“He stays out there all the time,” she added. “He opens the door.”

Edward Camuzo, the manager of the building where the 7-Eleven is located, said he often sees clashes outside the store over door-opening rights.

“I don’t know if that’s part of it. It’s all speculation,” Camuzo said. “I’m on the phone with the owner of the 7-Eleven, and he also does not know much about what had transpired. His employees are upset.”

He said that he had noticed a crime surge in the area after COVID, but “it’s gotten better lately in the past year and a half.”

“I don’t know, it might have been personal,” he said. “It could have been a squabble, but it’s been very calm.”

Carly Molina, who works on the 15th floor of the building, said she had the window open when she “heard screaming.”

“It sounded like a fight, or it sounded like a frightening scream,” she recalled. “And pretty much that’s about it. 
I only heard people, like, on the outside scream, probably pedestrians.”

No arrests had been made by Thursday evening.