Pistol-whips foe after weapon jams 3 times

A surveillance video from the lobby of a Brooklyn housing development shows the dramatic moment a victim stares down the barrel of a gun aimed at his head as it jams — three times.

The brazen gunman tried to shoot a rival in broad daylight before chasing him inside the Howard Houses but had to settle for pistolwhipping the victim when the gun malfunctioned.

The shocking video obtained by the Daily News shows a man leaving the NYCHA project in Brownsville just before 10 a.m. Friday when he spots a gunman sprinting toward him.

He dashes back inside but slips in the lobby, where an oblivious maintenance worker is mopping the floor. The worker quickly disappears out a side door when the sliding victim kicks over a bucket of soapy water.

The gunman slips and falls, too, but he gets up first and circles his target, pulling the trigger to no avail (photo). When he tries to fire a second time, the gun jams again.

Frustrated, the gunman starts hitting the man with the pistol as his target tries to get up. He shouts at him and tries to shoot again but the victim’s luck holds out.

The man manages to get up and run out the door he came in.

The building worker called cops and reported a man brandishing a gun. Officials said the victim did not report the incident to police. No arrests have been made. The incident alarmed residents. “That’s terrible,” said Myrna Romero, 55. “It’s terrible here.”

Romero lives on the building’s first floor and said most of the trouble happens in the stairways. She often takes the elevator just one floor down to avoid danger.

Jamal Williams, 26, said he was horrified by what he saw in the video.

“That’s crazy,” Williams said. “He could have lost his life.”