A homeless man with a criminal record tried to grab a cop’s gun inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown, sparking panic during Wednesday morning’s rush hour, police and witnesses said.
The confrontation was the latest in a series of crimes since last week committed by the homeless throughout the city.
Port Authority cops found John Gibson, 46, sleeping in front of a second-floor freight elevator at 9:15 a.m., authorities said.
When the officers ordered him to move, Gibson became agitated and tried to fight the cops off — then attempted to grab one of the cops’ guns, Port Authority spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said.
Gibson never pulled the gun out of the officer’s holster, but refused to let go of the weapon — prompting a scuffle.
Video taken of the incident showed six cops piling onto Gibson, punching him repeatedly to get him to let go of the gun. He was eventually subdued and arrested.
The cop the homeless man had latched onto also threw a few punches — as another cop pulled his gun and put it at Gibson’s head, ordering him to surrender, the video shows.
The scene sent commuters scurrying for cover.
“A woman was standing next to the man and she started yelling, ‘He has a gun!’ ” witness Channel Zarzuela, 20, said.
“I was so scared. You hear ‘gun’ and you think you’re going to die.”
A man selling smartphone accessories at the terminal was helping a customer when all hell broke loose.
“I was afraid. My customer ran away,” said the worker, who declined to give his name. “There were people running down the stairs, down the halls, everywhere.”
Commuter Dean Ross snapped a photo amid the chaos.
“The normally slow-moving escalator turned into a massive rush and someone fell,” said Ross, who was on his way to work. “People were stepping over him. Instead of getting caught in the crush, I stood against the wall and saw the cops and at least one (National Guard) soldier pinning this guy to the ground.”
Gibson was screaming at the cops, but Ross said he couldn’t make out what he said.
“He was definitely angry,” Ross said.
Panicked witnesses called in a report of a man with a gun to 911 operators, who put out a call for a police officer in need of assistance, which sparked an even bigger police response.
Cops charged Gibson with assault, attempted criminal possession of a weapon, disorderly conduct, menacing a police officer and resisting arrest, officials said.
Wednesday’s attack is the fifth incident since last Saturday in which a homeless man assaulted someone, police said.
Over the weekend, Nelis Calix, 39, was arrested for attempted rape when he tried to force himself on a woman near Union Square, officials said.
A homeless man is also being sought for fatally shooting another homeless man near Bryant Park early last Saturday, police said.
In another case, a homeless man hurled a cup of hot coffee at a Muslim woman on W. 35th St. — calling her a terrorist, authorities said.
Sources said Gibson has had a few run-ins with Port Authority cops before — and was arrested at the bus terminal last December on a drug possession charge.
“He’s a bus terminal regular,” said a law enforcement source. “He was being taken in on a quality-of-life violation, which happens at the terminal every day, then this happens.”
