Three pals filming their YouTube show picked about the worst place in New York City to stage a shooting scene — the stairwell of a Manhattan housing project, sources told The Post on Friday.
Cops on vertical patrol — the same police detail that ended with an officer killing Akai Gurley in 2014 — heard the sound of gunfire and swooped in on the men, arresting them for the stunt.
“These guys are extremely lucky they weren’t shot,” a police source said. “Nobody knew at first whether it was fake or not. This just demonstrates the restraint that the NYPD cops show on a daily basis.”
The three stooges told officers from the 13th Precinct’s Anti-Crime team they were filming an episode of their low-budget YouTube show “Here’s 2 The Throne” about street life in the Big Apple.
One of the actors — MTA bus driver Aaron Beam, 38 — told the cops the gun in his hand was a prop. But police didn’t take any chances and hauled him in on a weapons-possession charge.
Beam, co-star Rahman Soto, 30, and cameraman Jarod Nabors, 34, were also hit with charges of disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment.
Beam’s weapons charge was later dropped when cops confirmed he was indeed holding a BB gun. His mom, Catherine Hassell, commended cops for their restraint and said she’s just grateful her son didn’t end up like Gurley, who was shot and killed by former NYPD Officer Peter Liang during a vertical patrol in the Louis H. Pink Houses in Brookyn.
“Sometimes cops shoot and they don’t think,” she said. “I’m so glad they used their heads this time and nobody got shot.”
Liang was convicted of manslaughter this month for that shooting, and vertical patrols played a central role in his trial.
Cops on a vertical take the elevator to the top floor of a housing-project building and head up to the roof before descending back down to the lobby via the stairwell, checking for signs of crime.
Beam’s wife, Tracey, said her husband and his pals were simply filming a scene for an upcoming episode of the show, in which the two main characters exact revenge on a pair of rivals who shot them in a prior episode.
She claimed her husband is a hardworking and law-abiding citizen who enjoys his hobby of shooting amateur films — and nothing more.
MTA officials said they would look into Beam’s role in the incident.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore