A policewoman guarding Madison Square Garden for the Grammy Awards in Manhattan Sunday was injured when an unhinged man tried to steal her gun — and then hit her in the face with a laptop, police said.
Officer Magna Kamara, 26, was on paid-detail at West 32nd Street and 7th Avenue when she was approached by John Chin, a stranger who began talking to her, police sources said.
After a brief conversation, the 26-year-old man suddenly tried pulling her gun from its holster, but the cop was able to push him away, police said. After the failed attempt, the man tried to run away but Kamara pursued him. In an attempt to slow the cop down, he hurled a laptop back at her, hitting her in the forehead.
“[A] guy hit her upside the head with a laptop,” witness Bryan Rollins, 28, said.
The unrelenting cop was able to catch up to the lunatic and place him under arrest, police said.
Kamara, who has approximately two years on the force and typically works in the 108th Precinct in Queens, was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for her a laceration on her head, the sources said.
The officer’s gun was kept in place by her auto-locking SafariLand 6360 ALS gun holster, which the NYPD issued to officers in 2016 after the department’s push for safer, more secure holsters, cops said.
Kamara’s attacker, who police say resides in Chinatown, was taken to Bellevue for psychiatric evaluation. He was charged with robbery, for trying to take the police gun, and assault.
The 60th Annual Grammy Awards were scheduled to begin at the Garden at 7:30 p.m. — the first time the award show has been held in New York since 2003.
Additional reporting by Tea Kvetenadze