An emotionally disturbed man menacing residents with a pair of scissors was shot and critically wounded by a cop in the Bronx on Friday morning, police said.

The gunfire — involving the fifth police shooting in the past two weeks — occurred around 8:40 a.m. outside an assisted living facility where the 39-year-old man lived on Washington Avenue between East 163rd and East 164th streets in Morrisania, Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a press conference. 

“A case worker reported a man in mental distress with a large pair of scissors,” Chell said. ” As our officers responded, the subject who had the scissors and a 12-inch kitchen knife was racing near the officers. 

“He then decided to turn his sights on a civilian who was smoking a cigarette in front of the location. He went after this male with the scissors.”

Cops gave the man multiple commands to drop the scissors, but he refused, Chell said. One of the officers fired three times, striking the unstable man twice, wounding him in the shoulder, Chell said. 

The man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he is critical but stable, authorities said.

“The situation was fast, volatile and dangerous,” Chell said. “If our officers do not respond quickly, you might have a civilian that’s hurt.

“We stopped the threat to this community.” 

Police recovered the scissors, and a 12-inch kitchen knife was also found on the man after police took him into custody. 

Chell said he reviewed the events that were captured on body-worn camera. 

The man has a history of mental illness, including three previous interactions with the NYPD — one in the Bronx last year and two in Brooklyn, in 2017 and 2015, law-enforcement sources said.

He has four prior arrests, police said. 

The busts, all in Brooklyn, involved: resisting arrest last year, assault in 2022, fare-beating in 2003 and criminal trespassing, sources said.

Additional reporting by Larry Celona