The family of an exotic dancer, Imani Armstrong, who was gunned down in Gramercy Park this week is in shock over the execution-style slaying — and just learning the truth of her troubled life since she fled to New York

The family of an exotic dancer who was gunned down in Gramercy Park this week is in shock over the execution-style slaying — and just learning the truth of her troubled life since she fled to New York.

The masked gunman who blasted 25-year-old Imani Armstrong as she left her other job at an IHOP on Thursday morning needs to be arrested and prosecuted, grieving aunt Chanda Armstrong-Headen told The Post on Friday.

Armstrong had moved to the Big Apple from Virginia about three years ago to be with a woman who later became her wife, then kept communication with her disapproving family to a minimum, according to her aunt.

When her kin heard that Armstrong had been fatally shot by a masked gunman, they also learned she had been dancing and spent months in a shelter for domestic-abuse victims.

Armstrong, who danced at an unspecified club using the name “Red,” had recently separated from her wife and had two children in foster care when she was fatally shot. The family was left questioning why she didn’t come back home for help.

Armstrong had finished her overnight shift at IHOP at around 5 a.m. on Thursday and was on her way to the 14th Street subway when she was shot near Union Square, cops and sources said. Surveillance footage obtained by cops showed that the shooter was waiting for Armstrong across the street as she walked out of the restaurant, sources said.

The assailant is seen in the footage following Armstrong before running up behind her and firing a shot, according to the sources. The suspect, who is still at large, then ran northbound on Irving Place, the sources added.