A Taco Bell clerk who cops say shot a customer with a BB gun before pummeling him with the weapon in a dispute over “no tacos or burritos” was just trying to toss the man when he became unruly, co-workers and the suspect’s mom said.

Steven Noska, 26, was charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery. He was released on $250 bail and is due back in court next month.

“He’s a good man, and a hard worker, and now he’s worried about his job,” said Noska’s mother, Mary-Elizabeth Bewsee of Springfield.

Springfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. John Delaney said officers responded to a holdup alarm at the Liberty Street Taco Bell at 4 a.m. Sunday and saw a customer banging on the door of the restaurant, which Delaney said was open for business. The customer told police he’d been waiting for his taco order at the drive-thru “for a very long time” and had wanted to make a complaint about the service, but no one would help him.

According to the alleged victim, Noska had come to the door and the two argued. As he told the story, Noska shoved him out of the eatery, prompting the fisticuffs. Noska then retrieved a BB handgun from his car.

“The victim claims he was shot several times by BBs and then struck with the weapon,” Delaney said. “The employee went back into the restaurant and the police were called.”

But Noska’s mother claims the customer arrived on foot demanding drive-thru service, and got angry when he was told the restaurant was closed, punching and breaking the window. She said the man then disappeared, and Noska went outside.

“Apparently he snuck in when my son went out,” Bewsee said. “So when my son goes back inside, the guy is shoving things off the counter, he knocks over this donation (box) and my son says, ‘You gotta leave. You gotta leave. You gotta leave.’ He was slowly herding him towards the front door and they end up outside.”

According to Bewsee, that’s when the alleged victim attacked her son. Cops noted a bite mark on Noska’s arm and Bewsee said there are two more on his back. She claims Noska got a BB gun from his car during the struggle.

“He used the butt of the gun to get the guy off of him,” she said.

Police said several witnesses turned over cellphone videos and Taco Bell employees said cops also took the store’s surveillance video recordings.

A co-worker, who said he was there Sunday but did not want his name used because he was told not to talk by company officials, said Noska did the best he could under the circumstances.

“The whole story is not getting out there,” the co-worker said. “He’s a good guy.”