Cops slay hit-&-run crime loon

LICENSES TO KILL

A HIT-AND-RUN driver who killed a Brooklyn pedestrian Monday was later fatally shot in a bizarre confrontation with police on Long Island, authorities said.

The fatal shooting in Great Neck capped a bloody, rage-fueled crime spree that began at 8:35 p.m. Saturday, when the suspect punched out a 77-year-old man in the South Bronx and robbed him of $20, authorities said.

At 3:45 a.m. Monday, the 46-year-old culprit, whose name wasn’t immediately released, struck a 50-year-old pedestrian at Metropolitan Ave. and Grand St. in Williamsburg.

The pedestrian, who has a young son and lives in Brooklyn and relatives in Mexico, died of head trauma at Woodhull Hospital less than an hour later, authorities said.

The spree then spread to Manhattan, where the killer carjacked a Honda Odyssey from a woman delivering newspapers at Madison and Montgomery Sts. at 4:30 a.m., leaving the hit-and-run vehicle behind.

About 10 minutes later, at West and Harrison Sts. in Tribeca, he punched the driver of a 2018 Acura in the face and switched cars again.

His rampage ended at Maple St. and East Shore Road in Great Neck at about 10:30 a.m. — when the 46-year-old, by then driving a Volkswagen, refused to move at a stop sign, Nassau County police said. When two van drivers behind him started honking, he emerged, baseball bat in hand and clobbered driver in the head.

A cop on patrol confronted him, but he refused to drop his bat. A good Samaritan then rushed to help, and the suspect hit him in the head with the bat too, Ryder said. “And the officer had no option but to fire,” he said.

Medics rushed the bat attacker to North Shore University Hospital in Manahasset, where he died. The bat-attack victims were also treated at the same hospital, while the officer went to Nassau County Medical Center.