Behind crime scene tape outside a New York City smoke shop Saturday lay a cane and a pool of blood, signs left over from a bloody brawl between employees and a man well known on the block.

Police sources said the bloodshed started after a run-in between a man in his 50s and one of the store workers carrying a stack of boxes at Magic 7 Smoke Shop on Fordham Road.

It was just a few minutes after 12 p.m. when the altercation between the two turned physical and the man allegedly took a swing at the worker, police said. A second employee soon entered the fray and tried to subdue the man.

Sources said it was that second worker who delivered a fatal blow by stabbing the man in the neck. EMS rushed to victim to Jacobi Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Officials later identified the victim as 59-year-old Kenneth Fair.

Kenneth Gowdy, 54, of the Bronx, was arrested on charges of murder and manslaughter, police said late Saturday.

Neighbors on the block were shocked to see the blood covered sidewalk next door to the restaurant where they said the victim often sat outside.