The doomed young lover of an NYPD cop’s wife was a typical 20-year-old upstate guy, working at Wendy’s while picking up extra odd jobs and trying to get laughs on TikTok.
Edward Wilkins — who was fatally shot by jealous veteran Police Officer Sean Armstead on Sunday in a horrific murder-suicide — wrestled in high school and had a penchant for urban music, too, according to his TikTok account.
“I’m kinda like Spider-Man except I’m not and I work at a Wendy’s in upstate New York. What about ya’ll,” Wilkins wrote in February.
On the side, Wilkins worked as a dog-walker at Gotham Canine Club, a local small business run by Alexandra Vanderheyden — Armstead’s 35-year-old wife and Wilkins’ paramour, law-enforcement sources said.
Wilkins didn’t mention the dog-walking gig — or his married lover — in his TikTok posts, instead focusing on mundane musings of upstate New York life.
Several videos showed him working out, lifting weights and doing yoga poses. At one point, he wrote, “Damn I really miss wrestling bro…”
In a December TikTok post, Wilkins fired back at a commenter who took a shot at him over something, saying, “I’m guessing you read at a 7th grade level.”
Wilkins fired back, “I was reading at 10rh [sic] grade level in 3rd grade.
“I’m a ‘gifted child.’ ”
In a Dec. 13 post, he wrote, “Imma be gone soon,” referencing a song by Jason Derulo.
On Nov. 19, he also shared a post musing to Adele’s song “I Drink Wine.”
“Me thinking I’m an unstoppable sigma male forex god billionaire visionary who needs nothing and nobody,” he wrote.
He and Vanderhayden become lovers after he started working for her, and the woman’s cuckolded cop hubby eventually became suspicious of the pair’s relationship, sources said.
Sunday’s bloodshed began after the illicit lovebirds rendezvoused at a hotel in Wallkill, police said. The pair took a break from the hotel to eat dinner at a local Golden Corral, sources said.
They then headed to Round 1, a game arcade at an area mall that police sources had referred to as a Dave & Busters, which it is locally known as.
On the pair’s way back to their hotel, Armstead, who was tracking them, drove Wilkins’ car off the road, then chased him on foot and killed him in a hail of 16 bullets in the parking lot of a Buffalo Wild Wings.
Armstead then reloaded his handgun and shot himself in the head.
Vanderheyden, who was following her boyfriend in her own car, came upon the bloody scene, seeing the bodies of her husband and lover side-by-side, sources said.
It’s not clear when Wilkins started working for Vanderheyden or when they began their alleged affair.
Years ago, she apparently ran the business out of her and Armstead’s Upper Manhattan apartment on West 138th Street, the super at their building told The Post on Tuesday.
“I don’t know how many dogs they had, seemed like half the block. They both would walk the dogs, and they had other walkers,’’ the super said. “They must have gotten a complaint. The city came down and found out they didn’t have a license and told them they had to get out.
“The dogs were all over the place. People complained of the dogs barking.’’
But the business has 4.5 stars on Yelp thanks to largely positive reviews.
One client called it “the best daycare for dogs,” and another raved that the company “has basically become an extension of my family here in Harlem.”
Still, one customer identifying herself as Lindsay T. said in a recent review that service had slipped in the past few months — despite it having “excellent, 5-star walkers.
“I’ve been using Gotham to walk my dog since 2015,” Lindsay wrote. “Things started great, but as the company got busier the service began to go downhill.”
She said in the April 4 review that she finally cut ties with the company after growing frustrated with the long delays in getting a response from Vanderheyden and others there.
-Additional reporting by Robert Miller and Kevin Sheehan
