Mourn Sanman Allen
This Time, Hero In The Wrong Place

By REUVEN BLAU

Last September, rookie Sanitation Worker Damon Allen was surprised by the media attention after he and his partner helped save a little girl whose stepfather tossed her from the third-floor fire escape as they tried to flee a burning building. "We were in the right place at the right time," Mr. Allen told this newspaper shortly after the incident in East Flatbush. "I'm just glad we could help."

DAMON ALLEN

On Sept. 3, 2006, Mr. Allen was also helping others around him when he was fatally shot while trying to break up a dispute on a street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Hundreds of family members, friends, and colleagues gathered Sept. 9 to pay their last respects to the hero Sanitation Worker. His funeral was held at the Christian Cultural Center in Canarsie.

'A True Hero'

"[He] was a hero in the truest sense of the word," Mayor Bloomberg said the day after the shooting.

The police last week arrested a career criminal and charged him with the killing. Anthony Williams, who has a long rap sheet, robbed someone at the party, according to investigators. He was then kicked out of the gathering, but returned around 1:30 a.m. and began shooting at people outside, police said.

In the confusion, Mr. Allen instructed people around him to duck and take cover, according to witnesses. "He was always looking out for the welfare of others," said Michael Bimonte, the Sanitation Department's First Deputy Commissioner, during a Sept. 7 phone interview.

At the fire rescue last year, Mr. Allen and his partner, Michael Kalinowski were in the middle of their shift when they saw smoke billowing out of a first-floor window of a building at 4 a.m.

A Desperate Plea

They drove up to the three-story complex and discovered a man holding a four-year-old girl trapped on the third-floor fire escape and screaming, "Help, catch my baby!"

They instructed the man, Damon Whyte, to move a bit closer before dropping his daughter, Emani, into Mr. Allen's waiting hands. Mr. Allen and Mr. Kalinowski were awarded with the department's Gold Medal of Honor for their bravery. "He certainly made his mark," Mr. Bimonte said. "His work ethics were exemplary. He was well-liked in his garage."

After the incident, Mr. Allen stayed in touch with Emani and her mother, Karen Tapper. He visited them often and aided them in finding a new place to live in Sunset Park in February.

Mr. Allen, who is survived by his two daughters, Danasia Lawrence and Imani, said last summer that he never thought about simply waiting for the Fire Department to arrive. "There was no time," he remarked. "We jumped into action and did what we could to help."