An elderly recidivist shot a cabbie over a $40 fare in the Bronx – then strolled into a retirement home as the bloodied driver writhed on the street, the victim and officials said Tuesday.

Cabbie Alusine Barrie, a 27-year Guinea immigrant who supports his family back home, was shot in the stomach by Joseph Meeks, 76, while still in the driver’s seat of his yellow taxi outside the suspected gunman’s senior living facility near West 169 Street in Highbridge around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, according to police and the victim. 

Barrie then opened the door and fell out of the car with photos showing him lying down on his back as first responders and his mother cared for him in the middle of the street.

“Yeah, he just get out. He closed his door, he turned around and shot me,” Barrie told The Post from his hospital bed. “I tried to put the car in drive, he turned around and shot me.” 

The driver, who sources say was just licensed by the TLC in March, was in stable condition at Lincoln Hospital late Tuesday, but still needs a tube to help him breathe.

After Barrie was shot, he called his mother who lives nearby and was even able to take photos of the sinister septuanagerian hovering over him.

The gunman might have been drinking, the taxi driver said.

“He told me that, ‘Mom, Mom, please come, I’m dying. Come, let us talk, please, please.’ I get there quickly,” Barrie’s mother, Haja Idrissa Bahm, said.

“He’s on the ground. He tell me ‘Mom, I’m sorry about everything that I did to you’. I said ‘No, it will be ok, it will be ok, don’t say that’.” 

The altercation between Meeks and Barrie started when the suspect allegedly couldn’t cough up $40 for his cab fare after getting picked up in Harlem, Fernando Mateo, of the New York State Federal of Taxi Drivers, said during a Tuesday press conference.

He tried to swipe four different credit cards, but none of them worked, Mateo claimed.

“We visited Mr. Barrie earlier today [in the hospital] about an hour ago, and the first thing he said was, ‘please don’t let me die.’ He started crying, and he basically said, ‘Call my job, and let them know to please not fire me,’” Mateo added.

“And of course, we called up, and we know that they’ll never fire him, because he’s a very good worker.”

After Meeks allegedly pulled the trigger, he returned to his home, but cops arrested him about three-and-a half-hours later, police said.

He’s facing an attempted murder charge and has an arraignment set for Tuesday.

Meeks has a number of prior arrests, including two recent busts where the charges were not bail eligible under the state’s lax criminal justice policies.

He was hit with charges of menacing and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an April 29, 2024 incident in which he allegedly was armed with a gun and threatened to kill a victim, according to Manhattan prosecutors. 

Meeks was also slapped with charges of petit larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property stemming from an alleged car break-in on June 19, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said. 

Barrie has been in the country for about nine years and sends money back to his wife and child in Africa. He’s been working for the same company since 2023, according to Mateo.

His mother, brother and sister all live in New York, Mateo said.

David Do, commissioner of the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, decried the violence in a statement Tuesday.

“This young man sadly has had to fight for his life because of a senseless and totally unacceptable act of violence,” Do said. “We are thankful that he’s in stable condition and reaching out to him to offer support. We also applaud the NYPD officers who rapidly apprehended the suspect.”

Meanwhile, Mateo couldn’t get over the age of the suspect.

“This is a very senior citizen, 76, I mean, you’ve lived your life practically, right? Hopefully, you can live till you’re 80 or 90, but he’s lived most of his life,” he said of Meeks. “Why is he trying to take a young man’s life away?”

The taxi advocate called on the city and state lawmakers to get a better handle on crime – and care more about victims than law-breakers.

“Why are we so embedded in trying to protect the criminals, those that are out there committing crimes? Why is it that we’re not protecting the victims and we’re defending the criminals, the people that are committing violence against us?” Mateo raged.

“Guys, listen, we are all New Yorkers. We need to be protected.”