New York City Police Dept. officials are investigating the July 1 shooting of a 56-year-old union foreman at a Hells Kitchen jobsite.  Police are seeking the suspect who fled the site at West. 49th St. and Ninth Ave. in Manhattan in a white vehicle, says a spokeswoman with the NYPD. The call came in 9:33 a.m. from the crime scene, a job site managed by the NYC Dept. of Design and Construction (DDC).

The victim, Louis Lamburini, was shot in the left shoulder and taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was in "fair" condition as of 4 p.m., says a hospital spokeswoman.

"He was at work, sitting in a van, and somebody walked up and shot him," says Frank Cara, executive vice president and general counsel of Judlau Contracting, where Lamburini is employed. Judlau is working at the site with its parent firm OHL USA under a joint-venture contract for the trunk and water main project, part of the Water Tunnel No. 3 project, a massive, multiyear program to add an additional transmission line to deliver drinking water to New York City from upstate reservoirs.

Lamburini is a maintenance foreman for Local 14 of the International Union of Operating Engineers. He has been working at Judlau for eight months, Cara says. He adds that Lamburini's wounds are superficial and that he is expected to be released from the hospital today.

Media reports say the suspect is believed to be an ex-employee of Judlau. Cara says he does not know who the suspect is.

The jv, named Waterworks, is the general contractor for the $242-million trunk and water main project, which DDC is managing for the Dept. of Environmental Protection.