Metro

Carjacker tries to fake-out cops by pretending to be a victim

A Brooklyn carjacker who smashed up five vehicles and injured an elderly bystander tried to escape by posing as a victim — limping down the block until witnesses frantically po꧅inted him out, cops said.

“That’s him! He stole the car!’’ Astra Br🌄istol recalled shouting to police, who finally nabbed suspect Clinton Lawson, 30, halfway down the block.

Lawson began his one-man crime wave in Crown Heights around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, steal🀅ing a 2010 Toyota Corolla at gunpoint at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue, cops said. He didn’t get very far before all🅘egedly striking street vendor Dave Staten, 75, and a 2014 Mercedes-Benz on Kingston Avenue.

“I was loading my car, and then I was hit. I fell b𓆉꧒ack to the curb,” Staten told The Post. The elderly man said Lawson then whipped out a gun and fired a shot at the owner of the Mercedes but missed.

After nabbing Lawson, cops found this .25 caliber hanꦫdgun nea𝓀rby.

“Ev🏅erybod𝓰y was saying, ‘Stop him! Stop him!’ ” Staten said.

Dwight McPherson, 57, said𝕴 he tried to confront the thief but, “He put the gun right in my face, and I just backed up.”

The crazed carjacker stole his s🧔econd vehicle at Sterling Place and Brooklyn Avenue, robbing a black 2003 Nissan Xterra at gunpoint, cops said.

Once again, Lawson crashed — th🔜is time into two parked cars. He then snuck into a back yard on Sterling Place and broke into Bristol’s home.

“He came in and . . . dropped an empty shell from his gun in the bathroom, and then he tossed his gun behind the boiler in the basement,” said Bristol, who did𓆏n’t 𒆙know the thug.

“He kept asking me, ‘Are the cops out there?’ ”

Lawson then took off his shirt and hat and begged Bristol to le🥃t him inside the home. Bristol said an upstairs neighbor chased him off with a knife.

Lawson nearly escape༺d by posing as a victim as he limped down the street.

Bristol said she frantically retrieved Lawson’s h꧃at and shirt from the garbage can and waved them at the cops, pꦆointing to the suspect.

“He tried to fake out the cops by saying, ‘No I’m not the guy who stole the car. I got hit. My leཧg is hurting, I need help,’ ” Bristol said.

Lawson was arrested and was being held at Ki༺ngs County Hospital.

Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley and Larry Celona