A man leaving work for the day was shot and killed outside a church just steps from his Brooklyn home Friday evening, police and relatives said.

The victim, identified as Ancil Blackman, was on President Street near Rogers Avenue in Crown Heights around 5:30 p.m. when the gunfire rang out, according to police. Bullets struck the 39-year-old in the face, and he was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

His sister-in-law said he was coming home from work for the day, and was nearly at his front door when he was shot multiple times. A worker at a nearby bodega said he heard at least three shots, which some in the neighborhood thought were fireworks — including his own family.

"I was on the phone talking to my sister because she lives upstairs, and she's like, 'I'm hearing shots' and we laughed, saying it's firecrackers," said sister-in-law Rachel Charles. "He was a very hardworking family man."

Relatives of Blackman, many of whom live in the same building he did, said he was a porter, and can't comprehend why anyone would want him dead.

Police are looking into possible motives for the killing, and no arrests have been made. An investigation is ongoing.