The accused child molester snuffed out during a gun battle with the law at a West Village smoke shop was turned in by his boss.
Steve Zhik, who owns Smoking Culture on W. Fourth St., alerted cops that Charles Mozdir was working as a salesman at his store after seeing an episode on CNN’s new series “The Hunt” about the wanted man, sources said.
The “owner of the smoke shop saw the show, called (the) hotline,” a police source said.
When NYPD Det. Mario Muniz and two U.S. Marshals arrived Monday at the West Village store, Mozdir opened fired, wounding the three lawmen.
“I’m hit! I’m hit!” Muniz yelled in a dramatic video taken by the shop’s camera that recording the raging gun battle, a source said.
Zhik, 33, could not be reached for comment and a relative who declined to give his name said he has been out of the country on vacation for two weeks.
“It was a planned trip — absolutely nothing to do with this,” he said.
Zhik would not have knowingly hired or protected a wanted child molester, the relative insisted.
“He’s a family man,” he said of Zhik. “He’s the kind of guy, if he knew, he would definitely go to the police. He’s the kind who’s always willing to help. I don’t know if he knew the guy was this kind of bad guy.”
Zhik was one of two people who alerted the authorities after seeing the CNN program, which features former “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh.
Investigators also got Mozdir’s cellphone number from a woman whom he was seeing and pinged it to confirm he was in the area, a police source said.
The revelation that Zhik played a role in the capture of a creep who had eluded cops for two years came as Muniz’s mom passed on some good news about her brave son.
“Yes, he is,” Carmen Muniz yelled when asked if Muniz was doing better.
Then the relieved mom, who had been escorted from her Queens home by four city cops, headed to Bellevue Hospital to be with her boy.
Muniz, who is 45 and was shot in the groin, was in stable condition after undergoing surgery at the hospital. Police said his life was saved by his bulletproof vest.
Also in stable condition at the hospital was U.S. Marshal Ryan Westfield, who was shot in the elbow, sources said.
Westfield’s partner, Pat Lin, was grazed by a bullet on the thigh and was released from the hospital Tuesday.
Mozdir, 32, and his black Labrador retriever, “Lucky,” had been sharing an apartment on East 11th St. with a friend named Marcelo Maia, sources said.
It’s not clear how long Mozdir was bunking there or whether Maia was aware of his shady past. Nor was it clear what happened to the dead man’s dog.
Meanwhile, West Village denizens who knew Mozdir as John Smith said he was a quiet weirdo whose only friend appeared to be his dog.
“As far as I know, he didn’t have a girlfriend,” said barber Gregory Niazov, who owns Village Cuts a few doors down from the smoke shop. “He was a weird guy smoking and on his computer, and had a big Lab black dog.”
Mozdir also had another peculiarity — he often kept the blinds of the store closed, the barber said.
“Store was open but he made it seem like it was closed,” he said.
Orlando Dole, who lives around the corner from the store, said Mozdir blended in with the locals.
“He looked like a regular tattooed guy you see around here,” said Dole, 57. “Dressed in jeans and a shirt.”
Roberto Perez, 50, who works in the neighborhood as a building super, said the most notable thing about him was his “grown out beard.”
“He looked weird,” said Perez, 50. “I never suspected him of anything. I was astonished.”
Mozdir hailed from the San Diego suburbs and had been on the run for two years for allegedly preying on his good friend’s 7-year-old son.
A former wedding photographer from Coronado, Calif., Mozdir vanished after failing to show up for his June 2012 arraignment. A $1 million warrant was issued for his arrest.
His sister told cops that the last time she saw Mozdir, he was walking Lucky.
On the CNN show’s website, Mozdir’s friends — the parents of his victim — described him as an oddball, who “seemed to have a secret life and told outlandish stories about his overseas travels.”
Still, they trusted Mozdir enough to have him help out when their son was sick with a fever and the father was out of town on business.
The couple said that while the mother was busy trying to take care of their newborn daughter, Mozdir molested their son.
When the boy told them what happened, the couple called Coronado cops, and they later found evidence of child pornography and bestiality on his cellphone and computers.
Mozdir’s roommate also warned detectives the creep had two guns and had threatened to kill himself and the victim’s dad.
A few days after Mozdir split town, police found his car on the other side of the country, in Darien, Ga. But the trail went cold until Walsh’s show shined new light on his story.
When the cops arrived at the smoke shop, Mozdir began blasting away from behind the counter with a .32-caliber revolver, police said.
Muniz didn’t fire his weapon, but Westfield and Lin got off multiple rounds that mortally wounded the wanted man, who later died at Bellevue.
Sgt. Diana Drummey of the Coronado police, who investigated Mozdir, said his victim’s family had been living in fear.
“Mr. Mozdir made serious threats against the victim’s dad and we knew he had weapons,” she said. “I can’t imagine what the family went through knowing he was just out there for two years.”
Muniz, 45, who has been on the force for 21 years, is the second NYPD officer shot in the line of duty this year. James Li, a 26-year-old rookie, was shot in both legs after stopping a fare beater on a Brooklyn bus in February.
With Rocco Parascandola, Nancy Dillon, Dareh Gregorian, Don Kaplan and Jenna O’Donnell.