NO CHOICE BUT TO SHOOT?

RUTH HENRY CALLED police for help subduing her out-of-control son yesterday morning. Three hours later, he was dead - shot multiple times by cops.

It was the 11th fatal police shooting so far this year.

Witnesses and cops gave various accounts of what happened in the 30 minutes from when cops arrived at Henry's house in Ogontz until her son was shot dead shortly before noon.

Did 23-year-old Jason Henry lunge at police with a 14-inch butcher knife, giving an officer no choice but to shoot, as the police claim? Or was Henry simply trying to regain his composure after being stunned by a Taser gun, as witnesses claim?

The only thing cops and witnesses agree on is that Henry began throwing sharp objects - including a knife and a drill - out of a window at officers when they arrived at his home on 19th Street near 69th Avenue.

The NAACP said it would investigate.

"There was no gun found, so there was no need for deadly force," said NAACP lawyer Angelo L. Cameron, who was contacted by the Henry family.

Police said the drama began about 11:20 a.m., when cops arrived in response to a call from Henry's mother. About 20 minutes later, police determined that he had barricaded himself inside.

Henry then emerged from the house armed with a 14-inch butcher knife and officers stunned him with a Taser, police said.

"The male was initially disabled and additional officers went to place him in custody but the male got up, still armed with the knife, and charged towards the first officer," said police spokesman Capt. Benjamin Naish.

That officer deflected Henry, who then went toward a second officer with the knife, Naish said. A brief struggle ensued and the second officer shot Henry "multiple times" in the torso, said Naish, who added that the weapon was recovered.

Police would not comment on the number of shots fired, but witnesses said it was seven to eight.

Henry was pronounced dead at 3:04 p.m. at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Some witnesses said that Henry was on the ground, recovering from the stun, when he was shot.

Henry's brother, Craig, said he had persuaded his brother to come out of the house via cell phone by telling him, "They got the house surrounded."

"He came outside. They hit him with two [Taser shots]," Craig Henry said, contradicting police accounts that only one Taser stun was used. "He went down and he balled up."

Michael Jordan, a neighbor, said Henry looked as though he might have been trying to regain his composure when police "shot him seven times."

"There was enough cops there to subdue him," Jordan said. "They shot him while he was on the ground."

Lawrence McCrea, another witness, said it appeared that Henry was surrendering when he was shot.

"The guy was coming out of the house with his hands up. I didn't see no weapon," McCrea said. "They shot him with a Taser and he fell. He got up, disoriented, and fell towards a cop. They shot him seven times."

Brenda Mullen, a neighbor who transported Henry's mother, Ruth, to Einstein to be with her son, said Ruth Henry believed that her son was on "some type of substance" when she called police.

Henry's mother was "in shock" after her son was shot, Mullen said.

"They shot him for no reason," Mullen said after returning to the scene of the shooting.

Henry's aunt, Joanne Watkins, said her nephew never had any problems and went to work every day, although she would not specify his place of employment - and court records show he had had many run-ins with the law.

Watkins said his parents had immigrated from Antigua in the Caribbean, but that he and his two brothers were born here.

"They all surrounded him at close range. They meant to kill him," she said.

There was also a dispute about whether police searched the home after the shooting without a warrant. Cameron, the NAACP lawyer, said a search warrant was not issued until about 3 p.m. but that police were removing items from the home around noon.

Naish denied that. He said police may have entered the home after the shooting to ensure that no one inside was injured, but said nothing was removed until a search warrant arrived.

According to court records, Henry pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in Montgomery County in 2004 and was sentenced to 11 to 23 months in county prison.

In January, he was arrested for firearms offenses. Court records show a bench warrant was issued for his arrest on the day of his preliminary hearing in March. *

Staff writer Christine Olley contributed to this report.