Dad grabs gun from dying 24-year-old son’s hands after gun battle with off-duty NYPD and opens fire

As a man lay dying on a Bronx street from a shootout with police, his father snatched the gun from the son’s hands — and used it to continue the gun battle with cops, authorities said.

Two off-duty cops spotted the son, Mike Rosado, 24, shooting at a man on Valentine Ave. near 180th St. in Tremont just after 4 a.m., police said.

The father and son had been in an argument with a group of people on the corner when it turned physical and the son pulled out the gun and fired at an adversary, cops said.

“It was more than ten shots I heard,” said a resident who didn’t want to be named. “When I came to the window they still was banging, ‘Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop,’ it stopped then, ‘Bop, bop, bop.’”

The cops, who were in plainclothes after finishing their work day, identified themselves and told the shooter to drop his weapon but the gunman instead pointed it at them and began unloading, officials said. Nobody was struck.

The police officers returned fire and fatally struck the gunman once in the chest, cops said.

Uniformed officers from the 46th Precinct stationhouse a block away swarmed the area after they heard the shots.

“Immediately after shooting, the officers began rendering aid to the 24-year-old male,” NYPD Chief of Patrol, Juanita Holmes, said at a press conference.

In a wild turn of events, the gunman’s father, Raphael Rosado, 45, picked up the firearm from his dying son’s hand and began firing at cops but nobody was struck, police said. Police returned fire but the dad was not hit.

Surveillance video shows the father walking around the block, weaving between cars, then returning to the scene in hopes cops didn’t recognize him, sources said.

The father passed the gun to a nearby woman and tried to get away but cops quickly arrested him.

The dad has around 60 prior arrests on his record on charges including drug possession, assault and weapon possession, source said. The younger Rosado had been arrested a handful of times for minor offenses such as aggravated driving without a license, according to sources.

Local residents said the father had a history of getting into trouble but they didn’t know him as violent.

“I wouldn’t say he was a bad (man) but he got into a lot of trouble,” a friend of the elder Rosado said. “Sounds kind of like a father protecting his son. … It’s sad but it happened.”

EMS rushed the son to St. Barnabas Hospital but he could not be saved.

Both officers were taken to Jacobi Medical Center for ringing in the ears, cops said.

The woman the dad passed the gun to ran off, as did the shooter’s intended target. Cops were still looking for both of them Sunday evening.

Charges for the father were pending, police said.

“That makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m really surprised, it’s like it’s not safe,” said Joe Dumessi, 37, who moved to the neighborhood about a week ago. “Maybe one day I get up and go buy something in the night and something can happen like that.”