The man charged with murder for the friendly fire death of NYPD Detective Brian Simonsen defiantly insisted that the cop’s killing was not his fault.

“It’s very sad that Detective Simonsen lost his life, but I take no accountability for the death,” Christopher Ransom, 28, told The Post in an exclusive interview on Rikers Island on Thursday — where he’s being held awaiting trial on charges including Simonsen’s murder.

“The accountability should be with the officers who shot [42] times,” said Ransom. “They’re using me as a scapegoat. They’re pointing their fingers at me, but I’m pointing my finger at them.”

Ransom even put a measure of the blame on the hero cop, asking why Simonsen — who was working on his day off to crack a robbery pattern when he answered the fatal call — wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest.

The remorseless remarks came shortly after Simonsen’s widow, Leanne, told The Post that “trigger-happy” cops contributed to the February tragedy — but stressed, “It’s the perp’s fault no matter what.”

Ransom said that he’d seen the widow’s interview and agreed with her assessment that the NYPD needs more rigorous training to prevent deaths like Simonsen’s and that of Bronx cop Brian Mulkeen, who was killed by friendly fire last month.

“I agree with her, they need more training,” said Ransom, bizarrely adding that he one day hopes to aid the devastated family. “I’m very sorry about what happened to Detective Simonsen and his family. I’m going to spend my freedom trying to help them.”

Ransom also said that he intends to fight against the felony murder law, which allows prosecutors to charge defendants with murder when a death stems from another illegal action they take — in his case the alleged robbery.

“I’m going to work to get rid of the felony murder law,” said Ransom. “It’s very unfair. You didn’t kill, but you are still a killer.”

Ransom was carrying an imitation handgun the night he and alleged accomplice Jagger Freeman went to the T-Mobile store at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and 120th Street in Richmond Hill — and he insists to this day the whole thing was a practical joke gone horribly wrong.

“It was a prank gone wrong. It was just a prank,” insisted Ransom.

“I’m not a career criminal,” said Ransom, who has 25 prior arrests, including for impersonating a police officer. “I’m a comedian.”

But Ransom’s idea of comedy allegedly involved binding two workers in the back of the store — emerging from the shop dry-firing the imitation gun and spooking the small army of cops that had assembled outside.

Seven officers fired a total of 42 shots in the span of a minute.

Simonsen, 42, was killed with a single NYPD bullet to the chest. Ransom was struck eight times but lived.

“They should be shooting to bring down, not shooting to kill,” Ransom groused of the cops. “What am I, a bear or a lion? They were trying to murder me. All they see is a black kid with what they think is a gun and they shoot.”

But all told, Ransom said he’s grateful.

“I’m lucky to be alive, although I’m here. … The other guy didn’t make it,” he said, referring to Antonio Lavance Williams, the gangbanging ex-con who was killed alongside Mulkeen as they wrestled for control of the cop’s service weapon.

Ransom — who, along with Freeman, has pleaded not guilty — said that he is spending his time behind bars penning his autobiography, focusing on how his youth with a drug-addicted mother and his bipolar disorder left him in search of “love and attention and admiration from others.”

He said the working title of the book is “Friendly Fire.”

Additional reporting by Aaron Feis