A cop shot and killed a 22-year-old man who pointed an imitation handgun at him outside a Brooklyn elementary school yesterday, police said.
“The cop said, ‘He pulled a gun on me,’ ” said resident Maureen Quinn, who rushed to her front door after hearing shots fired and saw the dead man, face-down, on Knapp Street.
He was identified as George D’Amato Jr. of Gerritsen Beach.
Police sources said someone called 911 around 2:50 p.m. complaining of a man threatening passers-by with a gun outside of PS 194, where students had been dismissed about 10 minutes earlier.
Arriving at the scene, one uniformed officer found D’Amato holding what appeared to be a silver handgun, police said.
The officer yelled, “Drop it! Drop it!” and when D’Amato failed to comply, the cop fired three shots, hitting him, police said.
D’Amato was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital.
His devastated dad, George D’Amato Sr., said his son — who “had minor scrapes with the law, nothing serious” — worked at a Duane Reade, but yesterday told him “he wanted a day off.”
“I told him to go to work,” said the father, a former court officer.
“I am retired law-enforcement myself. I know what it’s like. I can’t blame the officer. He did what he had to do,” the dad said.