January 21, 2006
Stacey Sager
       
(Farragut, Brooklyn -WABC, January 21, 2006) -- Police in Brooklyn were involved in an early morning shootout with a man carrying an Uzi. But it's not the first time this suspect has been in the crosshairs of the NYPD.

It happened on Utica Avenue in Farragut. Stacey Sager is live with the details.

One thing is clear about the suspect in this case: he doesn't like getting kicked out of clubs and restaurants. He was kicked out of local restaurant last June for smoking and the owner says the man nearly killed him. Then this morning he was turned away from a club right up the street and that posed problems too: a shootout with police that left the gunman in critical condition.

It was just after 4:30 Saturday morning authorities say, that a 25-year-old man, Damien Henry, began firing at police on Utica Avenue.

The alleged weapon was a 9 mm Uzi. Al Zirino, who owns the bakery and ice cream shop up the block says he saw the whole thing on his surveillance video, which is now in the hands of police.

Al Zirino, Store Owner: "You could see it on the cameras and it went for about 30 seconds. There was a lot of rounds on the floor."

Police Tell us Damien Henry had tried to enter an after-hours club, showing a bouncer the Uzi. That's when someone at the club called police.

Meanwhile, the woman behind the door, who says she's the gunman's mother, had little to say about her son's criminal past.

Henry is out on bail for another shooting in June at a restaurant nearby, where the owner tells us Henry nearly killed him.

Police tell us the gun in that case was the same gun used by Allen Cameron in the November shooting that killed Brooklyn police officer Dillon Stewart.

Al Zirino: "When the system lets these guys hit the street, it makes it bad for everybody."

We can also tell you people in this neighborhood considered Damien Henry to be close friends of Allen Cameron, who is accused of killing that police officer.

Henry was accused of shooting another police officer bad in 2002 but was acquitted in that case. Today the police commissioner is saying this man should have never been out on the street.        

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