An NYPD officer who opened fire during a Harlem melee told fellow cops a suspect who ended up with 23 bullet wounds shot first.

“The guy shot at me,” Officer Douglas Brightman told Sgt. Brian Duffy moments after the Aug. 8 shooting, a source said. “And I fired back.”

A second cop, Sgt. Philip Terpos, said Brightman told him the same story: “He shot at me.”

Brightman, who fired two 9-mm. bullets, was referring to Angel Alvarez, an ex-con who cops say wrestled away a revolver during a dispute with a rival and then started shooting.

Four cops then fired a total of 46 shots. Alvarez’s fight rival Luis Soto was killed, and three bystanders and two other cops were hit by gunfire.

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