Man smoking pot at College of Staten Island dies after confrontation with NYPD cop

A photograph taken Tuesday of police subduing a person at the College of Staten Island campus

A College of Staten Island employee who was smoking pot on the campus died of a heart attack Tuesday after wrestling with a cop trying to arrest him, police said.

The unidentified suspect was smoking marijuana inside a bathroom shortly after 12 p.m., when an NYPD officer caught a whiff of the smoke and confronted him, police said.

The man — an off-duty member of the school’s auxiliary service — darted out of the restroom and the cop chased him to a nearby parking lot, where a struggle ensued, police said.

As the pair wrestled, the suspect tried to swipe a gun from the officer’s holster, a police source said. During the struggle, the pistol’s slide pulled back and a bullet popped out of the chamber, the source said.

Two civilians joined in the fracas and helped to subdue the man, sources said. After the suspect was handcuffed, he suddenly went into cardiac arrest and was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he died, police said.

Cops said the gun involved in the struggle never discharged. The officer was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries.