Gun-Toting Shopper Kills 5 in N.Y. Shoe Store : Violence: Three people are critically wounded in city’s second mass killing in 11 days. Suspect is arrested after chase through snowy streets.

A shopper seeking to buy boots in a Bronx shoe store apparently grew enraged at the service and opened fire with an automatic pistol, killing five people Tuesday. Police later arrested a suspect after a chase through snowy streets.

A 12-year-old boy and the store owner’s wife were among the dead. Doctors fought to save three other critically wounded victims, one of whom was on life support.

It was the second mass murder in this city in 11 days. On Dec. 8, in a dispute with racial overtones, a black gunman killed seven people and himself in a white-owned Harlem clothing store. The store was seeking to expand into space occupied by a black-owned record store, a fixture in the neighborhood.

With Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani at his side, Police Commissioner William Bratton announced the arrest of Michael Vernon, 22, of the Bronx in the shoe store killings. Investigators at the scene--a street of small shops near the Bronx Zoo--said that the gunman grew “displeased with the service,” then began shooting with a 9-millimeter automatic.

“It looks like he had an argument with one of the employees,” said a police spokesman. “He shot at everyone in the store.”

Police said the gunman entered the Little Chester Shoe Store about 11 a.m. and began shooting. When he attempted to flee with a hostage, he was confronted by a highway patrolman who was flagged down by people on the street who heard the sound of gunfire.

The patrolman and the suspect exchanged gunfire. A hostage was shot and critically wounded by the gunman, police said.

Vernon was wounded in the hand and groin. He ran around the corner, where he was captured by four other police officers. Officials at Jacobi Medical Center said Vernon’s wounds did not appear to be life-threatening.

When police entered the shoe store they found four men slain. Three other men and the owner’s wife, Kyong Bae, were rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where she died.

As steady steady snow fell on the neighborhood, stunned groups of shoppers gathered behind yellow police tape looking at the tableau of violence--shell casings on the sidewalk, car windows smashed by gunfire--and eventually the scene of four of the victims being carried out of the store in body bags.

“We heard the shooting. It sounded like banging,” said a clerk at the Parkway Vision Center, next door to the shoe store. Other witnesses said the highway patrolman was holding his portable police radio and firing at the same time.

Giuliani confirmed that the store owner’s wife was killed. He said the owner was in the back of the building and was unharmed.