He was the predator among us.
Fugitive child molester Charles Mozdir lived as “John Smith’’ for at least a year and a half in the heart of Greenwich Village, posing as just another quirky, shaggy-haired denizen amid the tourist-filled boutiques and seedy sex shops.
The one-time baby-faced California native settled in the Village with his black lab, Lucky, and grew a ZZ Top’ beard because he knew the area “is notorious for weirdos,’’ a law-enforcement source told The Post on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old pervert told a bald-faced lie as he passed himself off as a normal, reliable tenant while renting his pad at 621 E. 11th St., according to his roommate.
“He gave me a fake name, a fake identity,” the roommate, who asked that his name not be used, told The Post.
“He was a little unshaven, but I wasn’t renting out the apartment based on appearance.”
The roommate said he had no clue that the man staying in his apartment was on the lam for his depraved past.
“I was shocked when I heard what had happened, that he was living this kind of double life,” the roommate said. “I feel terrible about the family back in California, what they must have gone through. I am close to tears just thinking about that.”
Mozdir arrived with one piece of his past, a black Labrador retriever named Lucky.
“Well, he’s mine now,” the roommate said while walking Lucky. “Fortunately, I like the dog. He’s a good dog.”
The fugitive also got the perfect job for his cover by selling a sob story to the owner of a bong shop, Smoking Culture NYC on West Fourth Street near Jones Street. He claimed he was stranded in the city without dough, sources said.
After that, “he just looked like a regular tattooed guy you see in the neighborhood,’’ shop neighbor Orlando Dole, 57, said of Mozdir, who was killed in a shootout Monday that left three officers wounded.
Natasha Challapally, who lives on the same East 11th Street block as Mozdir did, noted, “He had a confident stride — he seemed like a New Yorker.’’
While hiding from authorities on a 2012 child-assault rap in Coronado, California, Mozdir crafted a daily routine that allowed him to easily blend in with the West Village crowd around the smoke shop.
Always pleasant, he bought his morning coffee at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Christopher Street, lunch at a local Subway sandwich shop, and groceries at the Gourmet Garage on Seventh Avenue — typically milk, baguettes, eggs, pastries and coffee.
“He would say, ‘Good morning’ and ‘Thank you.’ He was very polite,” recalled a 41-year-old cashier at Gourmet Garage. “When I saw his face in the paper, I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ ”
But the dark side of the fiend would sometimes surface.
A Village drug dealer, “CW,” said he would see Mozdir hanging out with transvestites, heading into gay peep shows and clubs, and scoring cocaine off the street.
Gregory Niazov, a barber who owns Village Cuts adjacent to the smoke shop, said that when Mozdir worked next door, he would regularly close the store’s blinds even during business hours and sit on the couch with his dog.
“I asked [once] if I could use his computer and he said, ‘No, no! Don’t touch it!’ ’’ Niazov recalled.
Mozdir — who fancied himself an artist specializing in glass-blowing — was obsessed with Lucky, sources said. He mentioned the dog in sick online postings about bestiality.
Mozdir had been on the run since skipping out on $1 million bail after molesting the 7-year-old son of a close friend — one of at least two child-sex raps against him.
The hunt for him had stretched from Mexico — where his dad has lived for years — to Georgia to Florida, with no luck.
A disgusted gal pal in Florida finally dropped a dime on Mozdir after an episode about him aired Sunday on CNN’s “The Hunt.’’
A team of eight US marshals and an NYPD detective — all with the New York-New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force — tracked him down to the smoke shop on Monday.
During a scuffle, Detective Mario Muniz was struck by three bullets and was heard screaming, “I’m shot! I’m shot!,’’ sources said. Two marshals were also shot, and Mozdir was killed.
Muniz is set to leave Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday. The marshals, Pat Lin and Ryan Westfield, were released Tuesday.
Life in New York might have been getting to Mozdir.
Niazov, the barber, said Mozdir recently had lost his wallet with $1,000 in it.
“He said he lost it at a bar. He was crying, saying, ‘I just got paid, and I needed that money for rent. I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ ” Niazov recalled.
Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy, Larry Celona, Amber Sutherland and Frank Rosario