Fugitive took Gowanus leap

He’s hooked on heroin and could have killed a cop — but the worst thing for one upstate fugitive’s well-being might have been his plunge into the toxic Gowanus Canal on Monday.

While it’s not clear how deep into Brooklyn’s Superfund-designated waterway he waded, Joshua Stuart, a man on the run after an upstate hospital shooting, was submerged enough in the purple-hued waterway to need a tetanus shot prior to his Tuesday court appearance, his lawyer, Michael Padden, said.

He was even brought into Brooklyn federal court wearing a head-to-toe hazmat suit.

Stuart also sported a bandaged hand as he told Judge Vera Scanlon he’d read the complaint, which details his four days on the lam since allegedly shooting up an Ellenville hospital Friday after a medical staffer declined to give him pain medication and then engaging in a gunfight with cops.

After the 42-year-old heroin addict fled, he made his way to Brooklyn, where he allegedly held up the Bay Ridge shop Mist Tobacco while brandishing a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol on Monday.

He allegedly took $50 cash and Newport cigarettes, and was spotted by a security guard at the Gowanus-area Whole Foods.

Cops found Stuart “sitting on a park bench” staring out over the oily waters.

But the spooked Stuart ran for the tainted channel, and was apprehended “in the canal,” court papers say.