Metro

Gun used in cop shooting netted in undercover buy

The gun used to blast a cop in the chest inside a Lower East Side housing project over the summer has been recovered, The Post has learned.

The .22-caliber handgun was purchased during an undercover operation in September as the NYPD and Drug Enforcement Administration probed a drug crew, law enforcement sources said.

A thug used the weapon to fire off a single bullet at point-blank range at Officer Brian Groves on July 5 as the cop and his partner patrolled the Seward Park Extension on Essex Street, sources added.

Groves, 31, a married father of two, was saved by his bullet-resistant vest and somehow managed to chase the gunman down four flights of stairs and squeeze off four rounds before collapsing from the pain.

The corn-rowed perp fled and is still being sought.