“As soon as his hand came out at me, I started stabbing him.”

Calvin Johnson folds his hands during an Aug. 29 interview at the Denver County Jail. Johnson, who is being held for allegedly punching a convenience store clerk and threatening him with a pair of scissors, told the Rocky Mountain News that he did stab a man at the downtown library. GEORGEKOCHANIECJR./ROCKYMOUNTAINNEWS

Calvin Warren Johnson admits he is a dangerous man.

And after his acquittal this year in the stabbing of a homeless man at the downtown public library — a crime he now says he committed— Denver police records show he isn’t bluffing.

In June, police arrested the 35-year-old transient after he pulled a 4-inch hunting knife on the manager of a Walgreens who caught him rummaging through the store’s dumpster. “I’ll cut you,” Johnson told the manager.

Johnson was jailed for three days.

In July, police say, Johnson was panhandling outside a convenience store when he punched a man who refused to give him money. Johnson allegedly pulled out a pair of scissors and told him, “I will kill you.”

Johnson is now at the Denver County Jail for investigation of felony menacing and attempted first- degree assault in connection with that incident. He also is being held on a criminal mischief charge for allegedly breaking the windows of a child-care center a block away from the convenience store.

The crimes Johnson is charged with now happened a few blocks from the central library.

“I see him a s a very dangerous person who needs to be taken off the streets,” said Denver Deputy District Attorney Doug Jackson, who prosecuted Johnson in the library stabbing case.

In a recent interview at the jail, Johnson agreed with the prosecutor’s description of him. He acknowledged he’s always armed and engages in violence when provoked.

“I am a dangerous guy to people who try to violate my rights and try to hurt me. I’m dangerous back,” Johnson said.

His occasional smile reveals that his four upper front teeth are missing. He lost them, he said, during a beating by prison guards years ago.

Johnson, who was born in Texas, has traveled across the U.S., “trying to figure out where in the country I fit in best,” he said.

In the process,he’s accrued an arrest record in Utah, Georgia, and Texas, and now Colorado. He attributes his run-ins with police to living on the streets. And the way he tells it, gangs follow him everywhere he goes. Johnson said he believes that the 61-year-old homeless man he repeatedly stabbed in the neck inside the Denver Public Library on 13th Avenue and Broadway was an Aryan Brotherhood member who was sent to get him. Johnson said the man confronted him by the elevators Aug.6, 2005.

“I don’t know if he knew I had a knife in my back pocket but I did,” Johnson said. “As soon as his hand came out at me, I started stabbing him.”

Some witnesses have said they heard arguing before the stabbing, but it was unclear whether the attack was provoked.

Pools of blood were found on the floor of the library’s lobby and at least one witness said blood was spraying from the victim’s neck.But when officers arrived, Johnson had no traces of blood on him. Johnson may have gone into the bathroom to wash off — blood streaks were found on the bathroom door and on the sink—but prosecutors said the blood trail could not be tied to Johnson because a library security guard who aided the victim also went to the bathroom to clean himself up after the attack.

Jackson said that jurors later told him one of the reasons they acquitted Johnson was the lack of blood on him. And although several people at the library, including the victim, identified Johnson as the attacker, jurors told prosecutors they were concerned about inconsistencies in the suspect descriptions.

One witness said the suspect was about 5 feet 7 inches tall and another said he was white. Johnson is a lanky 6 feet 2 inches tall, with short curly black hair and light skin. Police records list him as black.

A juror said she was saddened to learn that Johnson now admits to the crime. “We did the best we could with what we had to work with,” said the juror, who asked that her name be withheld because she was simply performing her civic duty.

“We all had reasonable doubt,” she said.

Despite Johnson’s admission to the stabbing, he cannot be prosecuted for the case again.

Jackson was confident the case against Johnson was solid, but when jurors delivered their verdict on March 10, he said he was “disappointed and stunned.”

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “It was the guy.”

Regardless of Johnson’s acquittal, he’s permanently banned from all of Denver’s public libraries, spokeswoman M. Celeste Jackson said. “He is not welcomed back,and we will monitor that very carefully,”she said. A day after his release, Johnson went to the Ross-Broadway branch library at 33 E. Bayaud Ave. One of the employees there spotted him and notified security, who told Johnson to leave, said Tom Scott, manager of security for DPL and the Arapahoe County Library District.

Johnson said he has a right to be free again.

“I deserve to be back on the streets as much as anybody,” said Johnson, who added later, “I’m likely to be at these cases that I got.”

His preliminary hearing on his new charges is set for Sept.21.

Prosecutors hope to keep him behind bars this time.

If convicted of the new charges, Johnson could be sent to prison for up to 12 years because he is a repeat offender.

The inmate said all he needs is a decent job and he’ll stay out of trouble. “But the truth is, when I get out, and I go on a job search, turning me away from the job, it’s putting me in a violent situation and you know, I’m going to compete,” he said.

“I’m going to survive. I’m going to carry a weapon.You know what I’m saying? I mean, the streets are crazy.”