Police have arrested a man believed to be the grinning joker who waved what looked like a real gun as he photo-bombed a live news broadcast outside the Brooklyn trial of stairwell-shoot cop Peter Liang.
Turns out the so-called gun was just a novelty cigarette lighter.
But even so, Simon Khanukov, 33, of E. 17th Street in Brooklyn, still faces misdemeanor charges of menacing and harassment, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year in jail.
“It’s a cigarette lighter,” the joker had protested to WNBC/Channel 4 reporter Michael George as he interrupted the noon live shot on Wednesday, a law enforcement source told The Post.
Khanukov was taken into custody Thursday after a tipster, who knew him by first name, reported him to Crime Stoppers upon seeing the news clip, which was re-distributed by police.
The suspect was at Downtown Brooklyn’s 84th Precinct on Thursday afternoon. Under the state penal code, it still counts as menacing whether the firearm used is real or merely appears to be real.
Selling, and even merely possessing, a realistic-looking, gun-shaped lighter or toy, are both misdemeanors in New York.