A young man friends described as a college student from a good family was shot dead across the street from Gov. Paterson's high-rise apartment building in Harlem on Tuesday night.

Police said a lone gunman put a bullet in 22-year-old Kwame Dancey's head about 6:30 p.m. - apparently without warning - and left him to die near the corner of Lenox Ave. and W. 132nd St.

Paterson has a flat on the the block but wasn't home at the time. Friends said Dancey lived in Paterson's building.

Malik Finney, 45, who has known Dancey since he was a child, said he was chatting with the victim just before he was killed.

"I left him to go around the corner to a deli on Lenox when I heard this loud pop," said Finney. "I ran back with a couple of other guys and when we got there he was on the ground twitching and bleeding. He died trying to fight it."

Dancey was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Finney said the victim lived with his father, a correction officer, and never got into trouble.

"He was a good kid who was going to college and wasn't into gangs or drugs," he said.

Police said Dancey was known to cops in the neighborhood.

"He was the intended target. He was not an innocent kid walking down the street," a source said.