Diallo came from Guinea in search of a better life. He worked 12 hours a day, according to friends, selling hats and gloves on the streets. He sent most of his earnings to his family in Africa. He reportedly neither drank nor smoked and was a quiet man. He had no arrest record. And he was a newly converted Knicks fan, excited about the NBA season.

Ahmed Diallo was soft-spoken and hardworking, a devout Muslim and a fervent basketball fan who believed he had a future in America, friends said.

Friends mourned the shy, stuttering man who neither drank nor smoked and worked 12 hours a day peddling hats and scarves on 14th St.

"He's not the wild type," said Momodou Kujabi, 33, who shared a tiny apartment with Diallo in the Soundview section of the Bronx.

"Very shy. Very pious. He prayed five times a day. Police told me it was a mistake, a mistake," Kujabi said.

Minutes before his death in their apartment building, Diallo told Kujabi he would pay the Con Edison bill the following day.

The two talked, then Kujabi said he went to bed and didn't hear the wild shooting.

But later there was a knock on the door, and a detective asked Kujabi if he had identification.

The next thing he knew, Kujabi said, he was escorted out to identify the victim, who was unarmed and had no police record.

"It was terrible," he said. "I could barely look. . . . There were bullet holes all over him."

Another friend said Diallo had immigrated to the U.S. 2½ years ago and that he always sent money home to his family.

Roommates and friends described Diallo as an NBA fan who had just switched allegiance from the Bulls to the Knicks because of Michael Jordan's retirement. Diallo was eagerly awaiting the Knicks season opener tomorrow.

"He was excited that the basketball season was about to begin," said a sobbing Suly Ceesay, a friend. "Every time after work he would just sit down and talk basketball."

Aboud Rahman Diallo, the victim's cousin, said Ahmed liked to sit on the stoop outside and chat.

"I saw him last Sunday," the cousin said, trying to hold back tears. "He was cooking."

A neighbor, Victor Vasquez, called Diallo "a cool guy" who occasionally would pedal a bike around the neighborhood.