Man bites cop

AN AGGRESSIVE, mentally unstable panhandler harassed an elderly woman in Washington Heights on Tuesday and attacked two cops who tried to take him into custody, police said.

The suspect followed and harangued an 82-year-old woman in a wheelchair on W. 181st St. just before noon, cops said.

The octogenarian and her aide, 55, tried to ditch the 23-year-old man in a Rainbow clothing store, but he was relentless, police said.

When cops arrived, the man tried to grab one officer’s gun and chomped down on his neck, authorities said.

Another cop broke his arm and injured his shoulder in the scuffle with the scrounger, police said.

The suspect was taken to New YorkPresbyterian Hospital Columbia. Charges against him are pending. STEWART LUPTON, the lead vocalist for ’90s New York indie rock band Jonathan Fire*Eater, died Sunday. He was 43.

Jonathan Fire*Eater, credited with reviving New York’s rock scene in the late 1990s, released their self-titled EP in 1995, followed by an album and a series of singles.

The band split shortly after their 1997 album “Wolf Songs for Lambs,” and Lupton moved back to Washington, D.C., where he studied poetry at George Washington University.

The singer toured briefly with his new band, Child Ballads, and released an EP with Carole Greenwood under the group name The Beatin’s.

His cause of death was not revealed.