Maybe it was suicide by cop, but there wasn’t much time for psychoanalysis in Times Square Saturday.

No, when a highly agitated Darrius Kennedy, 51, pulled a knife and began lunging at pedestrians and police officers alike, options were few.

First, cops tried to hem him in.

Didn’t work.

They tried pepper spray — six times.

To no avail.

With the distance between Kennedy and two officers now less than three feet, there were no options at all.

The cops opened fire — to wholly predictable effect.

“Under the circumstances, what the officers did was appropriate to the situation,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Kennedy’s family seems to expect the impossible of the NYPD: “I think they could have given him a warning shot, probably a shot in the leg or the arm or something,” said his cousin. “It doesn’t take 12 bullets to kill one person,” said an aunt.

And she’s right: All it takes to kill one person is a knife — like the blade Kennedy was carrying in Times Square.

Or a screwdriver, like the one he threatened cops with in a 2008 incident.

Anyway, cops don’t aim for arms and legs — that would lead to dangerous misses, and in a place like Times Square, a miss is too likely to be fatal for passersby.

Kudos to the cops for keeping themselves and countless others free from harm.