Bar owner John Adams is the kind of guy who would walk female employees and patrons to their cars to make sure they're safe.

But on Sunday night, he could have used a guardian angel himself.

Dramatic surveillance video released by police yesterday shows a coldhearted thug raise his gun just before shooting Adams, who had walked a patron to her car.

The Olney bar owner, who was identified by friends, is now fighting for his life and police are searching for the gunman and an accomplice. He was in critical condition at a city hospital yesterday.

The video captured the gunman and his accomplice on the sidewalk of 5th Street just north of Ruscomb, as they were standing a couple doors down from the bar, Johnny's Top Cat Club, just before the shooting, which happened about 10:50 p.m.

The two assailants are described as Hispanic men in their 20s. The gunman, about 5-foot-8, was wearing a light-blue shirt and a Phillies baseball cap, and had tattoos on his neck - writing on one side, and pictures of money bags on the other. The cap has been recovered by police.

The thugs were in the bar before the shooting, a close friend of Adams said yesterday.

The friend, who did not want her name printed, said Adams was in the front of the bar collecting cash for a comedy show that was being held Sunday night in a back room.

She said the assailants made their way to the back of the bar and when they were asked if they had tickets, which cost $20, "they refused to pay and said, 'f- that,' and proceeded on leaving."

Moments later, the woman said, someone ran to the back section of the bar and yelled that someone was shooting outside.

"I was frantic, petrified, scared as anyone would be," she said. As people ran outside, a crowd gathered around Adams, who was lying on the ground outside a Chinese takeout two doors down from the bar, she said.

The two assailants are seen in the surveillance video walking with two women, then standing on the sidewalk and talking with them for a few minutes before the shooting.

Lt. George McClay, of Northwest Detectives, said the women were interviewed, but "they're saying they don't know who" the two men are.

After one woman left, then the other, the two attackers were seen in the video waiting and looking around, and then one pulled out a gun and pointed it at Adams as he was walking by.

The gunman shot the bar owner, and after he fell to the ground pleading for his life, the gunman shot him again, Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, said yesterday at a news conference.

Before fleeing, the gunman is seen taking something from the bar owner's pants pocket, police said.

Adams had come out of the bar that night to walk a former female employee, who was at the bar to see the comedy show, to her car, Adams' friend said. He was walking back to the bar when he was shot.

"John is the gentleman. He is and always has been," the friend said. "Every woman that's been there [at the bar], he says, 'Where you park, Boo Boo?' " the friend said. "He would walk them to their car and he would say, 'Call me when you get home.' "

The friend said she believes the gunman took the cash from the comedy-show sales from Adams' pocket.

The friend, who visited Adams at the hospital yesterday, said he was shot first in the abdomen. Police said the second bullet went through the bar owner's right arm as he lifted it to shield himself; that bullet flew into his chest.

Adams was in a medically induced coma at the hospital yesterday, the friend said.

Adams is a "hardworking man" who struggles to take care of his 3-year-old daughter, the friend said. She said Adams has owned the bar for about nine years, and has been holding the comedy shows for the past seven. Comedians who have performed at the bar include TuRae and Michael Blackson.

Sunny Singh, who works in the Discount Check Cashing store next to the bar, said that community members would hold a meeting to discuss the shooting at 5 p.m. today at the Greater Philadelphia Asian Social Services Center, or the GPASS community center, as it is better known, on 5th Street near Ruscomb.

"The neighborhood people are scared," said Singh, who packed a gun in his waistband before he walked from behind the protective-glass counter to talk with a reporter.

The surveillance video with the two assailants can be seen at www.phillypolice.com/news. Anyone with information on them should contact Northwest Detectives at 215-686-3353.

No wonder - Taylor had six children and a storied high school basketball career that was ripe for hours of reflection.

But there won't be any more warm trips down memory lane for Taylor or his family.

Police said the 32-year-old was shot in the head in South Philadelphia on Thursday.

Taylor died yesterday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after his family took him off life support, said George Flamer, Taylor's godfather.

Homicide Sgt. Frank Hayes said investigators know of no motive in Taylor's slaying and have little to go on, other than a vague description of the shooter.

Taylor was gunned down on Ellsworth Street near 23rd shortly before 9 p.m.

He was in the neighborhood to help his mother, Sabrina, prepare for a family dinner, Flamer said.

"I think she had sent him to the store to get some sugar," he added, "and then it happened on his way back."

Flamer said Taylor's mother is taking the loss of her only son - two days before Mother's Day - "pretty hard. They were very close."

In the mid-1990s, Taylor was a standout basketball player at Charles Audenried High School. The 6-foot guard once scored 50 points in a game, and set the school's record for career points, with 1,266.

In 1996, he was named to the Daily News' All-City Basketball Team.

Before starring at Audenried, Taylor spent a year at Edward Bok Tech, where he got to know Terrance "Tex" Mack.

Mack, a star player for Bok, said the two became lifelong friends.

"Abdul was a good father. He was never in the streets. He wasn't a street guy," Mack said. "That's why this is a real bad blow for me."

Flamer described his godson as a "happy-go-lucky fella who just loved to be around his kids," who ranged in age from an infant to a high-school student.

Taylor, who lived near 31st and Tasker streets, had recently done mentoring work at Audenried, Flamer said.

Tipsters can contact police at 215-686-3334 or -3335.

Lisa Campbell sat sobbing on the steps of her mother's Spring Garden home yesterday, unable to forget what she'd just seen.

A 22-year-old woman - who may have been pregnant - had been shot in the chest in broad daylight on Green Street near 7th, allegedly because she was sitting on a man's car.

"I saw her face," Campbell said. "I'm devastated, not just because it's a female, but because it's also Mother's Day."

Campbell, of West Philadelphia, said she had just come back from shopping with her mother and had seen people gathered nearby in the street.

She said she and her mother went in the house, and minutes later - police said around 12:55 p.m. - a gunshot rang out.

Campbell ran out of the house and saw the victim lying on the roadway. The gunman, who was "an older man," walked calmly to his car and drove away, she said.

After running to the victim's side, Campbell said she called 9-1-1. She said the woman, who had a bullet wound to the side of her chest, was conscious but couldn't speak.

Police arrived before medics and they took the critically wounded woman to Hahnemann University Hospital, authorities said. Neighbors said they believe the woman was sitting on the gunman's car, and police are investigating that possibility.

"This is all because she sat on his car," Campbell said. "It's a senseless shooting. It didn't make any sense."

Initial police reports said that the victim was pregnant, and Campbell said from the woman's appearance, it's quite possible she was, though police could not confirm that last night.

A supervisor at Central Detectives did say though that "I think she's going to make it."

A suspect was pulled over in his vehicle shortly after the shooting by patrol officers on 16th Street near Brown, police said.

A weapon was recovered and he was taken into custody, though police have yet to release his name or any charges against him.

As for Campbell, she worried yesterday not only about how the victim was doing, but about her own children and the safety of her mother.

"We can't even sit on the steps anymore," she said. "The violence is senseless. It literally does not make sense."

A man who was stabbed once in the abdomen early yesterday inside a North Philadelphia bar was in critical condition last night at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

The stabbing occurred shortly after 2 a.m. at Nikki's Place, on 5th Street near Ashdale, in North Philadelphia, police said.

Man knifed in Olney

A 27-year-old man was stabbed shortly after 2 p.m. yesterday at Hill Creek Drive near Adams Avenue in Olney. Although no arrests had been made in the case by last night, police said they knew who the assailant was. The victim was in critical condition at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

She's stable after shooting

A woman in her 20s was shot in the head outside a Fresh Grocer on Chelten Avenue near Pulaski in Germantown yesterday afternoon, but was expected to survive.

The incident occurred shortly before 3 p.m. Police knew of no motive and had no suspects as of last night. They said the woman was hospitalized in stable condition.