A MAN who went on the run for nine years after shooting a mother-of-three in the head has finally been jailed.
Dennis Barrington Black, 44, gunned down an Asian woman in the entrance to a block of flats in Lockier Walk, Wembley, in June 2000.
Earlier, the 28-year-old victim and her 37-year-old husband had confronted a gang of youths about playing on the grass in front of their home.
The dispute soon became violent and one of the youngsters left the scene threatening to get his father to kill them. Shortly after, Black arrived in a blue BMW convertible and demanded the couple come out of their flat.
When they came down to face Black, he shot at them through the glass door three times with a silver pistol, hitting the woman in the head and hand.
Black fled the scene and his description was circulated by police. But he was already moving from country to country on false passports, and managed to evade capture for almost a decade - before he was arrested on the same estate where the shooting happened.
Black had been living under the name of Charles Burton and is believed to have spent time in Europe and Jamaica. But Brent police were finally tipped off last June that he was back on the estate, and arrested him at an address in Lambert Walk, Wembley.
He was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent at Harrow Crown Court on March 29, and sentenced to 12 years' jail.
After his arrest, he told police officers: "I'm not a bad person. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"There isn't any guns. It's a relief anyway - you can only be a fugitive for so long, then you run out of money."
Back in 2000, a loaded pistol had been found in a nearby garage after the shooting, but it was never established whether this was the gun that was used to shoot the victim.
But firearms residue was found in Black's car, and when arrested he had a large amount of cannabis.
Police said the victim, who has asked not to be named, has had to come to terms with the physical and psychological scars of the attack and, because of her bravery and the courage of other witnesses to give evidence in court, 10 years after the shooting, Black is behind bars.
Detective Sergeant Owen White said: "This is closure for the victim. For a long time she had been looking over her shoulder, never knowing if he was going to be there or whether she might bump into him.
"She couldn't leave her house. She is 38 now, and has managed to get a job and is being really positive."
