Metro

Assault rifles are popping

Assault rifles like the one used in the gruesome weekend triple slaying in Queens have been involved in at least two other shootings in the city in the past seven months, authorities said yesterday.

In Saturday’s slaughter, a man wielding an AK-47-style military weapon shot dead three men and wounded a fourth in apparent retribution for a nearly million-dollar drug rip-off, sources said.

One of the victims, James Bussereth, 33, had told pals before his death that he had a $20,000 bounty on his head, sources said.

Other recent incidents involving AK-47-style rifles include:

* Last December, when a masked man blew away his college roommate during an argument over counterfeit money on Staten Island.

* In April, when a lunatic who wounded four Brooklyn cops was reaching for a loaded assault rifle just before he was overrun by police and restrained.

But police sources said such rifles are unusual in the city.

“We’re just pistols here because you can hide [them] easily,” one source said. “There’s not enough space in the city to hide assault rifles.”