‘Epitome of a NYC police officer’: Young cop shot in Brooklyn by a gunman suspected of killing man minutes earlier

A young Brooklyn cop, his life spared by a bullet-resistant vest, left the hospital Thursday just hours after a frenzied street shootout with an alleged gangbanger suspected of executing a man stopped at a nearby red light.

Officer Brian McGurran, 28, pumped his right fist and shook hands with the cops lining his way to a waiting car only 13 hours after bullets flew through the Wednesday night darkness on a Bedford-Stuyvesant street.

The four-year veteran, who exited Kings County Hospital alongside his wife, dodged serious injury when a bullet fired by the suspect struck the back of his vest during the gun battle, police said.

“He is the epitome of what a New York City police officer should be,” said NYPD Chief Judith Harrison, commanding officer of Brooklyn North. “Running toward shots, running toward danger to serve the people of Bed-Stuy, to put bad people where they belong — behind bars.”

McGurran comes from a police family: The 81st Precinct officer’s father is a retired NYPD First Grade Detective and his brother is a sergeant in Manhattan’s 19th Precinct.

Accused shooter Boyce Hayward, 26, a reputed member of the Young Stackers gang, was shot in the knee during the gunfight with police outside Saratoga Park and was in stable condition at Brookdale Hospital, police said.

The gun battle, with more than 20 bullets fired, stretched across a half-block and was captured on the officers’ body cameras, according to cops.

Hayward — who has the words “Pray for Me” tattooed across both hands — has 12 prior arrests, six of them sealed, including a robbery arrest and a gun rap, sources said. A church pastor’s grandson, Hayward also has four drug possession charges dating to 2015, and was busted on a DWI charge in January.

The shooting started around 11:10 p.m. Wednesday, just four minutes after a lone gunman ran up to a white 2015 BMW SUV stopped at a red light at Madison St. and Broadway and opened fire, said Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.

Robert Randall, 28, was fatally shot in the chest while a second man, 21-year-old Malik Lucas, was critically wounded in the chest and leg. A third man in the vehicle was uninjured.

Randall was a part-time construction worker and aspiring rapper who was “a cool individual,” said Alexander Acevedo, a long-time friend. “Some of us tend to be products of our environments, but he definitely stayed out of trouble for the most part,” Acevedo said.

All three men in the car were gang members with prior arrests — including pending gun possession cases where each was freed without bail, said NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.

The wrecked SUV slammed into a nearby elevated subway pillar — it was still there well into Thursday morning. Five 9mm shell casings were also left at the scene as the killer walked away.

Just after that shooting, McGurran, in an unmarked car with a sergeant and a second officer, spotted Hayward on foot about a quarter-mile away, said Shea.

The suspect turned as if to assume a shooting stance and immediately opened fire as the uniformed cops exited their vehicle.

The wounded officer, in addition to the shot that hit his vest, was also struck in the buttocks and suffered a leg wound possibly inflicted by the same bullet.

McGurran and a second officer fired 21 shots during the exchange, according to police.

Neighborhood residents were horrified by the sound of late-night gunshots and the Thursday morning details about what happened.

“We recently moved into the neighborhood, and I was like, ‘Why is this feeling like a war zone?’” asked Isha Sumner, 35, who arrived with her family this past December.

“It’s been a little bit unsettling, to say the least ... This here is so disappointing and so sad, because it’s not the neighborhood. It’s the people that make the neighborhood, good or bad.”

Her Bed-Stuy neighbor Lionel Lewis, 64, stood watching the aftermath Thursday after hearing the gunshots one night earlier.

“When you shoot a cop, that means you’ll kill anybody,” he mused. “That means you have no respect. You just pray every day you leave that you come back home safe.”

Several parked cars nearby were riddled with bullets, including a silver SUV with a person inside who escaped injury. Eyewitness Charlies Preyer, 75, recalled cops slapping the handcuffs on Hayward as the wounded officer was lying face-up on the street nearby.

“The EMTs lifted him up and put him on a gurney,” he recounted of McGurran. “It’s truly ridiculous. It’s out of control over here. These guys don’t care who they shoot.”

According to Shea, a 9mm weapon was used in the SUV shooting and Hayward allegedly fired a 9mm at police. Ballistics tests and a video review will help police determine if the same gun was used in both crimes.

It was unclear if the three cops who confronted Hayward knew about the SUV shooting. They were in the area over the Tuesday afternoon shooting of a 22-year-old man in Saratoga Park, with the victim wounded in his hip.

A relative of the accused shooter challenged the characterization of Hayward as a gang member and suggested the label came from racial profiling. The family member said they would continue to give him their love and backing to the suspect.

“I would just tell him he has a ton of support in his corner,” the relative said. “We all love him. Nobody is judging him. And we will be with him to the very end, healing in any way that he can.”