The man who filmed the now-viral video of a Mercedes-Benz striking a cop in Times Square blamed the officer for the whole thing on Monday — and actually defended the reckless driver.

Speaking on Instagram live, photographer Kiefer Dixon claimed the suspect, who is still on the run, wasn’t trying to hit the officer on Saturday night.

“He tried to get around the cop. I was right there,” Dixon said, insisting that he doesn’t know the guy who was behind the wheel.

“Before the cop even ended up on the side of the car, the cop had his gun out,” Dixon explained. “So now he’s got a cop on his hood with his gun drawn — and cops can be trigger-happy. My thinking? The guy was trying to get the hell on outta there.”

Dixon, a photographer who regularly films cars in NYC on Friday and Saturday nights, said the officer is lucky he didn’t accidentally shoot anyone.

“I’m looking at the cop like, what he did was very stupid and very dangerous,” Dixon said. “When he fell, his gun could have gone off and he could have hit somebody.”

Asked what he was thinking when he saw the officer in front of the Benz, Dixon said: “What the hell is this cop doing, is he really trying to push a speeding car back?”

The young man had been filming the entire incident while cruising on his longboard.

“That s–t just popped off in front of me and I just so happened to be there,” Dixon said. “I don’t really care for what the cop did, so I didn’t talk to any police.”

Recounting the driver’s dramatic getaway, Dixon said: “It was just ridiculous. He made it out of Times Square by doing some crazy-ass drifting … It was just mind-blowing. That’s some crazy driving skills.”

Dixon’s footage went viral Sunday, though he didn’t initially get credit for it.

“The s–t got out … without my permission,” he said, noting how someone filmed his IG live feed and then posted the clips online.

“Nobody can say that I didn’t shoot it because it was on my Instagram live. All of that was shot live.”

Dixon later described what he was thinking during the video.

“When I was shooting the live, I did not know that was going to happen,” he explained. “The [driver], he did a burnout down the block and that’s when I was recording … I said, ‘Cool, I’ve seen burnouts done in Times Square before,’ but what was unexpected was the police officer who ran out in front of the car.”

Dixon added, “I’ve seen police come up to cars before — they come up nice and slow pace, not charging at them. They give the cars a ticket or tell them to relax. This cop ran out to the street, yelling at the guy and whatnot … The guy didn’t want to pull over, I guess … A cop on your hood with his gun drawn? I wouldn’t wanna be sitting there, either.”