Ex-con packing two guns among armed NYC farebeaters busted in past week

NYPD cops busted four subway fare-beaters in the past week and recovered guns from each of them — including an ex-con who was packing two loaded pistols, police sources said Monday.

Damien Trinidad, 28 — who had been out of state prison for just four months — was arrested Tuesday after getting into a scuffle with transit cops at the Broadway and East New York subway station in Brooklyn, sources said.

Trinidad was initially stopped on a fare-beating rap — until a “ghost gun” was spotted in his waistband and a second firearm wrapped in a bandana then fell from his pants when he tried to flee, sources said.

Trinidad, who was also charged with drug possession with intent to sell Tuesday, was arrested in the first of a recent string of turnstile busts leading to additional weapons raps.

“Four arrests and five guns off the street out of the transit system in the last week because of cops enforcing quality-of-life offenses,” a veteran cop noted to The Post.

“It’s not rocket science,” he said. “It’s proven time and again [that] crime enforcement — including fare evasion — leads to dangerous individuals being taken off the streets and out of the system for much more violent crimes, including carrying illegal guns.”

Michael Kemper, the NYPD’s acting chief of transit, said at a City Council hearing Monday that the arrests highlight the importance of cracking down on rampant fare jumping in the subways. 

“Ninety-seven percent of individuals that stopped for fare evasion walk away minutes later with a single summons. Only 3% are arrested — most likely they are wanted and have active warrants,” he said.

“Some of them are wanted for very serious crimes — murder, rape, some of them are possessing firearms.”

As for fare-evaders, “It’s a free for all,” Kemper said.

“A lot of people aren’t paying. I was in full uniform when people were going through the turnstiles without paying. People were asking me to help them go through without paying, hold the door for them.

“Those are facts,” he said. “Just in relation to fare evasion. It’s my opinion, our opinion, public safety begins the minute a customer enters the subway system.”

NYPD Inspector Raymond Porteus agreed that the recent rash of fare-beat busts are far from the first to help thwart more serious crimes. 

“Some heinous crimes,” Porteus noted to council members. “Back in September in East New York, Brooklyn, … on the J [train, I] stopped an individual for walking through the gate and put it through the computer and out he was wanted by the 75th Precinct.

“For what? For shooting somebody and killing them,” the inspector said. “He shot a person in the head on the sidewalk in June. He was brought back to the 75 precinct and they arrested that individual.”

All of the weapons seized from fare-beating riders in the past week were loaded, sources said, including the so-called “ghost gun.” Such guns are homemade and frequently assembled from online parts. They have no serial number and are untraceable.

Trinidad, who was ordered held on $100,000 bail, was just the start of the good policing.

On Wednesday, cops at the Rockaway Avenue Station in Brooklyn charged 28-year-old Shaliek Jefferson with possession of a .22-caliber handgun after he allegedly tried to skip out on the subway fare, the sources said.

Jefferson was allegedly smoking marijuana as he snuck in through the emergency gate at the station and was spotted with the gun, according to a criminal complaint.

He was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail or a $100,000 bond, prosecutors said.

Sources said Jefferson has a rap sheet that includes an assault charge in April for allegedly slashing a Brooklyn bodega worker in the face during a dispute.

On Thursday, transit cops in the Bronx arrested another alleged armed farebeater with an arrest history, including on assault and robbery charges, the sources said.

Suspect Keenan Grant, 31, told cops, “the machine wasn’t working” when he was allegedly spotted going through the emergency gate at the Bedford Park No. 4 train station, prosecutors said.

The officers searched his backpack and allegedly found a loaded 9 mm handgun.

Grant was arraigned and ordered held on $15,000 cash bail or bond, prosecutors said.

The final bust came Monday morning when police arrested Hunter Kyle Borges at a Broadway G-line station in Brooklyn, the sources said.

Borges allegedly used a transit key to open the gate at the station shortly before 6:40 a.m., and was found with a gun inside his jacket.

He was awaiting arraignment Monday.

All four suspects were charged with gun possession.

“Thankfully we’re still doing enforcement and real police work,” another police source said.

“It’s textbook. It works.”