From fare beats to gun busts

Cops’ turnstile finds

NYPD cops busted four subway fare-beaters in the past week and recovered guns from each of them — including an ex-con who was packing two loaded pistols, police sources said Monday.

Damien Trinidad, 28 — who had been out of state prison for just four months — was arrested Tuesday after getting into a scuffle with transit cops at the Broadway and East New York subway station in Brooklyn, sources alleged.

Trinidad was initially stopped on a fare-beating rap — until a “ghost gun” was spotted in his waistband and a second firearm wrapped in a bandana then fell from his pants when he tried to flee, the sources said.

Trinidad, who was also charged with drug possession with intent to sell Tuesday, was arrested in the first of a recent string of turnstile busts leading to additional weapons raps.

He was ordered held on $100,000 bail.

“Four arrests and five guns off the street out of the transit system in the last week because of cops enforcing quality-of-life offenses,” a veteran cop noted to The Post.

“It’s not rocket science,” he said. “It’s proven time and again, crime enforcement — including fare evasion — leads to dangerous individuals being taken off the streets and out of the system for much more violent crimes, including carrying illegal guns.”

Michael Kemper, the NYPD’s acting chief of transit, said at a City Council hearing Monday that the arrests highlight the importance of cracking down on rampant fare jumping in the subways.

“Ninety-seven percent of individuals that stopped for fare evasion walk away minutes later with a single summons. Only 3% are arrested — most likely they are wanted and have active warrants,” he said.

“Some of them are wanted for very serious crimes — murder, rape, some of them are possessing firearms.”

As for fare-evaders, “It’s a free for all,” Kemper said.

“A lot of people aren’t paying. I was in full uniform when people were going through the turnstiles without paying. People were asking me to help them go through without paying, hold the door for them.

“Those are facts,” he said. “Just in relation to fare evasion. It’s my opinion, our opinion, public safety begins the minute a customer enters the subway system.”

Preventing worse crimes

NYPD Inspector Raymond Porteus agreed that the recent rash of fare-beat busts are far from the first to help thwart more serious crimes.

“Some heinous crimes,” Porteus noted to City Council members, recalling an incident in September on the J train in East New York,where cops “stopped an individual for walking through the gate and put it through the computer, and he was wanted by the 75th Precinct.

“For what? For shooting somebody and killing them,” the inspector said. “He shot a person in the head on the sidewalk in June. He was brought back to the 75th Precinct, and they arrested that individual.”

All of the weapons seized from fare-beating riders in the past week were loaded, sources said, including the so-called ghost gun. Such guns are homemade and frequently assembled from online parts. They have no serial number and are untraceable.