MTA employee shoots straphanger during heated subway argument, police say

A MTA collection agent critically shot a man in a Brooklyn subway station amid a heated argument on Tuesday night, police sources said.

The employee, a transit revenue collector who acts as armed security, was waiting for a Brooklyn-bound R train at the Atlantic Ave.–Barclays Center station with a colleague after stocking a machine when a 39-year-old man approached them and started an argument around 9 p.m., cops said.

The transit revenue collector was overseeing his colleague, a revenue electronic maintainer who fixes MetroCard machines.

The disagreement escalated as the man threatened to beat them up while the train rolled into the Union St. Station in Park Slope, police said.

In an effort to avoid the irate man, the MTA employees got off at the stop, a police source said.

“This was definitely not a robbery,” the source said. “He was fixated on the unarmed fixer. They got off at the next stop to just avoid this guy. He was screaming that he was going to f–k them up.”

The situation appeared to escalate as the employees exited the train and the man followed them to the mezzanine, Acting Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said at a news conference late Tuesday night.

The man continued to walk toward them as the armed guard warned him to back up. He refused and threatened to grab the gun from the MTA employee, Kemper said.

The 21-year MTA veteran fired off one shot, which struck the man in the chest. He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in critical condition, cops said.

The man has “numerous arrests” in the city, sources said.

NYC Transit President Richard Davey told reporters the MTA has 274 armed guards whose jobs are to accompany the mechanics who fix the transit system’s 1,000 plus vending machines.

Police were working with the MTA and the employees to nail down what unfolded before the incident, cops and the MTA said.

They were not immediately facing charges.