CHICAGO >> With two Chicago police officers beaten and on the verge of getting shot by a shoplifting suspect, Ray Robinson knew he needed to join the fray.

Undeterred by the sound of a single gunshot that missed its mark, the short and slender Walgreens employee rolled on the ground with the officers and the 6-foot-3, 250-pound customer he had just helped moments before, forcing the man’s fingers off the trigger as the man was about to fire a second time.

The mere seconds before he was finally subdued seemed like an eternity to Robinson. He later noticed that his work uniform was covered in the blood of one of the officers, who according to charges was punched by Thomas Thompson.

“They need help. They don’t have this. And I knew the one cop was hurt,” a soft-spoken Robinson, who is about 5 foot 6 and 130 pounds, said in an interview Sunday. “I just knew they needed help.”

Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors are now calling Robinson a hero after he aided the two officers in arresting Thompson, 33, an Army veteran who disarmed one of the cops and tried to shoot them after attempting to get away with stolen pills and other items from the North Side Walgreens store on Valentine’s Day.

Thompson was charged with attempted first-degree murder, disarming a police officer and possession of a controlled substance after, police said, he was found with cocaine. He is being held in the County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

The day of the incident was just like any other for Robinson, 48, who works as a “shift lead” at the Walgreens, 5440 N. Clark St., in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood. Around 8 p.m., he was placing advertising tags in the vitamin aisle when Thompson approached and asked Robinson for some fish oil pills.

Robinson recalls helping Thompson for about five minutes and he was “really pushing me to look for it.” With Robinson’s back turned, he heard something hit the floor but didn’t think anything of it when Thompson picked it up.

Little did Robinson know, Thompson was placing items in his bag, Robinson said.

Alerted by co-workers who saw Thompson trying to steal the items, Robinson ran up the center aisle of the store and up to the candy aisle near the front door. He saw Thompson leave the store while holding a cranberry vitamin drink in one hand and another item in his other, activating the alarm.

After grabbing an item from Thompson’s hand and telling him to come back inside, Robinson saw two police officers in an SUV in the parking lot.

“I think they probably saw what was happening,” Robinson said.

Robinson and the officers confronted Thompson as he tried to walk away from the store. Robinson then went through the bag and found testosterone boosters, other fitness pills, cranberry juice and other items.

The officers were then about to arrest Thompson when he bolted toward a car nearby.

The officers caught up with him at the car, and the three struggled, Robinson said.

Thompson then turned and punched an officer in the face.

The other officer told Robinson, who was standing away from the group, to call 911 on his cellphone. But there wasn’t time.

The two officers were trying to grab ahold of Thompson’s hoodie, like in a hockey fight, Robinson recalled. Thompson, however, was able to break free.

“He’s going for my gun!” Robinson heard one of the officers shout. “I believe I heard him say, ‘He’s got my gun.’

“In my mind it played out for a whole hour, just the time span. So fast, (but) it took forever,” Robinson said. “I’m thinking, the cops don’t have control of the situation. It’s getting really dicey. … They need help.”

Robinson then dropped his phone and dove in to join the struggle. He didn’t see Thompson disarm the officer but heard the gunshot — which didn’t injure anyone — either “as soon as I jumped in, or right before I jumped in.”

Robinson saw the gun when one of the officers emerged from the pile. Thompson pointed the gun over his own shoulder, Robinson said.

Still on the ground, Robinson grabbed Thompson’s hand, and “pushed it to the ground so he could not reach over and try to keep firing.”

“I grabbed his hand I forced (the gun) to the cement,” Robinson said. “By the grace of God, I was able to get my other arm up there and was able to pry his finger off the trigger.”

One of the officers was then able to force the gun out of Thompson’s hand. The gun’s magazine also became detached from the gun during the struggle.

A high school wrestler, Robinson was able to hold his own with Thompson while on the ground but knew he wouldn’t stand a chance, had they both been standing up.

“He was like a bull in a China shop,” Robinson said of Thompson.

Moments later, backup officers arrived and Robinson walked back into the store.

“I felt my whole side, it was just soaking wet from so much blood (from one of the officers),” said Robinson, who suffered scrapes. “It looks like I was hit with a shotgun.”

The two officers were hospitalized for injuries, said Deputy Chief Dana Alexander said after the incident.

Prosecutors and Thompson’s court-appointed lawyer said he has no criminal background, one child and served in the Army for two years with an honorable discharge.

Robinson is modest about being dubbed a hero by authorities.

“What can you say about that?” he said. “I felt like I just did what I had to do at that moment, and I wouldn’t want to see anybody have to do that.

“I would not recommend it. Things could’ve come out way different.”