A crazed man with a history of attacking cops was shot by a police officer with the NYPD’s Mounted Unit yesterday in Brooklyn after the lunatic was caught vandalizing a cruiser, police said.

Matthew Sobota, an 18-year NYPD veteran, was getting ready to start his shift with the NYPD’s Mounted Unit Troop E at 5 a.m., when his usually quiet morning routine turned violent, sources said.

Sobota, 42, was changing into uniform inside the Brighton 3rd Street facility in Brighton Beach when a civilian employee ran in to tell him that someone was outside destroying a police car, according to sources.

Sobota drew his gun and ordered Pearson to get on the ground, sources said. The deranged man complied at first, but sprang back up and the two began to wrestle. Then Sobota fired three times, striking Pearson once in the left shoulder.

Pearson, 35, — who was recently locked up for throwing a brick through the window of a jail in his hometown of Manning, SC –was taken to Lutheran Hospital in stable condition.