Gun ‘obsession’

Qns. cop impersonator busted with arsenal

AN EX-CON with a history of impersonating cops was busted after officers found he had two loaded guns and enough ammo in his Queens home to carry out a mass shooting, police said.

Kevin Nugent, 40, was arraigned on gun, drug and forged instrument charges and ordered held on $75,000 bail at his arraignment Friday afternoon.

He was arrested Thursday after police got a tip about weapons inside his home on 254th St. in Rosedale.

Nugent (photo inset, with cache cops found in his home), who was outside when cops arrived, pointed them to his home and said everything inside was his, say papers.

Inside, police found two loaded guns — a .380-caliber Ruger and a Mossberg shotgun — plus 370 bullets, bags of prescription pills and $2,230 cash, according to documents and cops.

Cops also found two policestyle ballistic vests, six bogus law enforcement ID cards for the NYPD, FBI and ATF, gun holsters, a machete, two-way radios, handcuffs and police clothing that included a NYPD counterterrorism sweatshirt.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the gear “when worn would have convinced most civilians that he was a member of law enforcement.”

Nugent’s plans for his cache were not clear to cops.

“He had no plans for it . . . it just became an obsession,” said Donna Nugent, the suspect’s mother.

“It’s not illegal to buy that stuff online,” said Erin Nugent, the suspect’s wife.

Nugent’s rap sheet includes busts for possessing a loaded gun and two for criminal impersonation.

Cops busted Nugent in Queens in December and accused him of trying to pull over a driver from behind the wheel of a souped-up Nissan Maxima fitted with police-style lights.

Nugent told an officer he was heading home from his job at UPS, and that a forged NYPD detective shield in the center console was a Halloween purchase and that he had a gun in the glove compartment, court appers say.

When an officer opened the compartment he found an imitation pistol, a collapsible baton and a switchblade.

In the car, cops also found handcuffs and a forged NYPD ID card, the documents said.

Nugent served two stints in state prison, both for convictions in Suffolk County.

He was released in August 2002 after serving three years for attempted burglary. Ten months later, he was locked up again for attempted drug possession.

Nugent was conditionally released in that case in 2007 — but three parole violations stretched his sentence to August 2009, when he was freed for good.