Here’s an idea for a new reality show: Queens Grandmas Gone Wild.
Maria Cartagena, 81, got fed up with the noise from upstairs neighbor Iraida Palmieri’s Forest Hills apartment Tuesday, police said, so she drew her trusty gun and fired.
But it takes more than a gunshot to slow the 73-year-old wife of Grammy-winning jazzman, pianist Eddie Palmieri.
She was recovering yesterday from a graze wound, police said, while her angry neighbor was stewing in jail waiting for her family to scrape up $25,000 bail to spring her.
Cartagena is charged with attempted murder, assault and weapons possession.
The two have been at odds over noise almost since the Palmieris moved into the building on 67th Road less than two years ago.
The dispute, and its violent outcome, was no surprise to one neighbor.
“As far as we’re concerned, if we heard that somebody in our building did something like that, I’d say ‘Oh it must have been her,’ ” said the neighbor.
The victim told police she was taking out her recyclables at 7 p.m. when the elevator stopped on the fourth floor — and Cartagena was there.
Cartagena, she said, warned her, “Move over or I’ll kill you.” She allegedly repeated it, then pulled a .38-caliber pistol from her fanny pack and fired.
The bullet went through Palmieri’s hat and scratched her head, police said.
Cops found the wounded woman in the elevator and she told them Cartagena shot her.
Police went upstairs and the pistol-packing octogenarian readily admitted she pulled the trigger, authorities said.
Also at home was her 60-year-old husband, Rafael, a city bus driver. He has a license to keep the gun in the apartment, but also had a gravity knife.
He was charged with reckless endangerment and illegal possession of a weapon. He was released without bail. According to the court papers, Maria told police she has had an ongoing problem with the victim.
“I told her to leave and she wouldn’t leave. She had scissors. I shot her,” the papers quoted her saying.
Rafael told The Post last night that the dispute centered on the fact that the Palmieris are Puerto Rican and he and his wife are Dominican. He didn’t mention the noise complaints.
“Mrs. Palmieri told my wife that if we didn’t move out of the apartment they would send us back to the Dominican Republic in a box, meaning they wanted us dead,” he said. Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain