After a scuffle in a sixth-floor hallway of 85 E. 10th St. in the East Village last night, a 34-year-old man was fatally wounded with a single gunshot to the back of the head, police said.

Homicide detectives said it appeared as though none of the victim’s personal items were taken, ruling out robbery as a motive. Police said two suspects, described as in their mid-20s, fled the scene on foot, running east on 10th Street to Fourth Avenue, where they turned south. The victim was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead on arrival at the facility, police said.

Residents on the sixth floor of the building said they heard a commotion sometime around 6 p.m.

A corporate attorney, Josh Kogan, 27, who lives on the sixth floor, said he heard an argument outside his door and then a loud bang – like the dropping of heavy furniture in the hallway.

Twenty minutes later, he saw crime scene investigators and knew something was wrong. “Not your ordinary Sunday,” Mr. Kogan said.

Another neighbor from the building’s sixth floor said the man’s apartment was inundated with a steady flow of different people. “His place was like a train station – people always coming and going,” the neighbor said.

The building’s superintendent, Jose Chavez, said the murder victim was not the primary leaseholder on the apartment.

Other tenants expressed shock yesterday that a murder could have taken place on a Sunday evening in such a relatively quiet building, which is affiliated with the New York Health and Racquet Club.

One tenant, a jewelry designer, Jessica Thompson, said she had decided to stay in a hotel with her dog after the shooting. “It freaks me out,” she said.