“I Need Some Help Here”

When an NYPD cop needed a free hand to handcuff a suspect, a New York janitor stepped in and held his gun until he had the perp bound and shackled.

The handoff happened at the end of a wild chase through Manhattan on Friday.

Police spent an hour trying to collar a motorist, 42-year-old Jeffrey McNair, who struck a taxi and a jogger (twice), then fled on foot after hitting a van. 

The suspect slipped into a basement and tried to disguise himself as a janitor when the real maintenance man spotted him and went for help, police said.

The officer who responded was trying to cuff the suspect with his gun drawn when the weapon wound up in hands of janitor Placido Contreras. 

Contreras, who had never held a gun before, told The New York Post he only had the weapon for a moment. "Keep your eyes on him and shoot him if you have to," he said the cop told him. Police deny Contreras and the officer spoke.   

It's not clear why the officer didn't wait for backup. Police officials wouldn't identify the cop who handed off the gun, but did admit it was an unusual move, according to the Post. Authorities said he had moved the gun to his weaker hand while attempting to apprehend the suspect and couldn't get the weapon back into the holster.

"He handed him the gun very briefly while he got the second cuff on," a police source told the Post. "[The suspect is] a dangerous felon, and he was trying to handcuff him."

An NYPD spokesman praised the officer for "adapting.''

McNair had been arrested 43 times prior to his latest arrest. Charges stemmed from burglary to gun and drug charges, the Post reported.