A city cop — and niece of former Met Shawon Dunston — was released on $1,000 bail this morning after being charged with shooting her lesbian lover in a vicious quarrel.

Ekeythia Dunston, 32, claimed she shot her long-time gal pal Erica Legall, 42, early Monday morning in self-defense because she was being attacked herself with a clothing iron.

“Obviously there are extenuating circumstances here,” said defense attorney Edgar De Leon in Manhattan criminal court.

The couple — who been together for five years and are raising two sons together — began arguing over a text message Dunston received around 3 a.m. on Monday in their Harlem apartment.

“The complainant hit the defendant with a handheld laundry iron about the head several times,” said Assistant District Attorney David Smith. “The defendant pulled out her service revolver, which was loaded, and she shot twice.”

Legall was struck in the thigh and shoulder and taken to Harlem Hospital where she was in stable condition.

Dunston, who was suspended without pay, was charged with assault, weapons possession and endangering the welfare of a child. She was treated for an iron-induced head injury at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Dunston joined the NYPD in 2002 and is assigned to the 108th Precinct in Queens.

But, her attorney De Leon said Dunston is pursuing an assault complaint against LeGall for attacking her with the iron.

“I think its safe to say that this relationship is over,” he said.

Sources told The Post that both women were intoxicated.

Dunstons son, Daichoi, 13, and Legalls child, Jaden, 7, were in Legalls West 128th Street apartment along with another 32-year-old woman at the time of the incident.

Dunstons father, Bryant, brother of the ballplayer, added, “Every couple argues but this is crazy. She never she her gun before. She is all messed up now mentally. If she didnt do it in self-defense she would have been dead.”

About his famous brother who played for the Mets in 1999 and now works on the coaching staff of the San Francisco Giants he said, “If he hadnt heard about this before, he knows about it now.”

With Chuck Bennett