Video shows deadly fight

Cops shoot naked man over gun

The life-and-death Harlem hallway struggle between a wounded city cop and the naked man who shot him was captured in harrowing NYPD body cam footage released Wednesday.

“Shoot him!” screams injured Officer Christopher Wintermute in the video from the Oct. 23 confrontation inside the apartment building where gun-toting suspect Victor Hernandez was laying in wait for the cop to arrive.

The suspect, after shooting Wintermute, was trying to grab the wounded officer’s gun.

“Shoot us!” howls Hernandez, the deranged father of two, as Officers Michael Buliga and Whitney Martin rush to Wintermute’s aid. The two cops, positioned behind a wall in the hallway, killed Hernandez with 15 shots fired from about 10 feet away — none of them striking their fellow officer.

“What you see could have been a friendly-fire incident of tragic proportions,” said Deputy Commissioner Richard Esposito, the NYPD’s top spokesman. “They were trying to make a critical decision in a short period of time.”

While the shooting remains under internal review, footage from Buliga and Martin’s cameras, as well as the building’s security footage, was released by the NYPD on its YouTube channel.

The slain man’s mother, Maria, is also a member of the NYPD.

Police responded to a 911 call about a man smashing glass and banging on doors inside an apartment building on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 148th St. at about 2 a.m.

Hernandez, 29, had earlier killed his pet guinea pig inside his apartment, police said.

Closed-circuit footage from a second-floor laundry room shows Hernandez leaning against a hallway wall, holding a 9mm handgun and ready to open fire.

“He’s waiting in ambush for two minutes,” Esposito said. “The cop turns the corner and he fires.”

Hernandez’s shot struck Wintermute in the vest, disabling the cop’s body cam, police said. Police believe the suspect also fired a second shot.

Wintermute squeezed off a single shot. Hernandez suffered 10 gunshot wounds, though it wasn’t clear which officer’s bullets struck him.

Body camera shows officer on ground struggling with naked suspect Victor Hernandez (also below), who is shot to death a few moments later on Oct. 23.