The man who died during a shootout with police at a north Birmingham café took his own life after shooting the officer, according to an eyewitness and authorities.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office has now identified the man as 26-year-old Larry Dejuan Henderson, who had previously spent time in an Alabama prison for murder. Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said the autopsy showed Henderson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

It was a suicide witnessed by Wilma Bibb, owner of Ruth’s Café. She said it was a tough thing to watch and she is still haunted days later by what she saw. “I’ve struggled with it,’’ she said. “The look in his eyes, he was truly troubled.”

Bibb gave AL.com a detailed account of what happened Friday morning at her café at 4012 24th Street North.

The young man, now identified as Henderson, came into the restaurant before 8 a.m. and ordered a breakfast sandwich and cake. The cashier told him how much it was, and his response was, “I’m gonna need you to pay for my shit today,” Bibb said.

“He may have just been kidding, I don’t know, but the cashier said, ‘I didn’t bring my debit card or cash today,’ so he said he was going out to his car,’’ Bibb said.

The cashier pointed Bibb out to Henderson and said, ‘’That’s the owner. You can ask her.”

“He turned around and looked at me and I said, “Are you OK? Did we take care of you?’’ Bibb said. “He said, ‘Yes.’’’

Henderson went out to his car, which was parked directly in front of the restaurant, and sat there for a while. When he went back into the café, he had a debit card in one hand and gun in the other. “He put the gun in his pocket, and he paid for his food,’’ Bibb said. “We have it on tape – him walking into with the debit card in one hand and the gun in the other.”

“Of course, when he came in with a gun, the staff was watching him from that point on because he was parked right in front of the restaurant,’’ she said.

“He put his food on the seat of the car and he just said there and stared into the restaurant for about 35 minutes,’’ Bibb said.

At that point, Birmingham police Det. Mikiel Smith, a 47-year-old veteran of the force, had arrived at the restaurant to pick up his breakfast. He talked with someone outside briefly and then went into Ruth’s, where Smith was known by Bibb and staff because he was a regular customer.

“One of my staff members said, ‘something’s wrong with that guy. He’s scaring people,’’’ Bibb said. “The police officer comes in the restaurant all the time so I asked him, ‘Will you do me a favor? This young man is just sitting here. Can you check and see if he’s OK and if he’s OK, can you just ask him to leave?’’’

Bibb stood outside with the officer when Smith approached Henderson’s car and said, “Young man are you OK?”

Henderson said, “yeah” and so Smith said, “We’re going to need you to leave the premises.”

Bibb said Henderson just looked down and Smith asked him three times to leave. He didn’t threaten him with arrest -- just calmly told him to go away, she said.

“By the time he said it the third time, that young man opened the door and he fired, and he shot the officer in the arm. He shot him in the arm twice,’’ Bibb said.

Smith was knocked backward into a red truck parked next to Henderson’s car. The truck gave him support.

“The only thing that saved his life was that he kept kicking the door as the young man was trying to get out of the car. The officer was bleeding everywhere,’’ Bibb said. “The officer fired, and he did hit him. I don’t know how but the young man had the adrenaline to keep trying to get out of the car and the officer kept kicking the door.”

At that point, Bibb said, Henderson’s gun jammed. When it did, Smith ran for cover to the side of the building. “The young man – he had already been hit – he got out of the car and was on the ground,’’ she said. “He hit his gun on the ground (to free the jam), put the gun to his head and shot himself in the head.”

Backup arrived and both Smith and Henderson were rushed to UAB Hospital’s Trauma Center. Henderson was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at the hospital. Smith has been released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.

Authorities said Henderson was armed with a stolen gun. Six law enforcement officers were shot to death in Alabama in 2019 and all but one killed with a stolen gun.

Friday’s shooting is the sixth time in 15 months that a Birmingham police officer has been injured and the third time already this year.

Henderson was just 16 years old when he was arrested in the shooting death of an Ensley man.

He and another suspect – Detrick McGee - were charged with capital murder in the June 6, 2010 slaying of a 69-year-old man in Ensley. Police said the deadly shooting stemmed from a dispute between the victim – Alex Rogers – and McGee.

McGee – who authorities said was the actual shooter - pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder in 2012 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Henderson in 2014 pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with three years to serve.

Henderson’s case, before it was ultimately resolved, was one of two cases that led the Alabama Supreme Court in 2013 to issue a list of rules on how judges should sentence juvenile killers.

That ruling came in the wake of an earlier decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that says automatic life-with-parole sentences are unconstitutional for juveniles convicted of capital murder. The Alabama Legislature later enacted rules for sentencing juveniles convicted of capital murder.

He pleaded guilty in 2017 to possession of drug paraphernalia. He was arrested again in 2019 on allegations that he was in possession of heroin. That case has been turned over to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

Bibb said Friday’s ordeal was a horrible thing to watch.

“I have a son who probably looks more like the young man than the police officer,’’ she said. “It bothered me. I don’t know what the young man had in mind, but the look on his face, he was troubled. It was a sinister look.”

“I can’t say for sure whether he was waiting on the police to leave and he was going to come in and rob us. I don’t know enough about him to say that,’’ she said.

“If the gun hadn’t jammed, that officer would be dead,’’ Bibb said. “I know he wasn’t expecting that young man to fire, none us were. I have never seen anything like it.”

Bibb said she wanted everyone to know that Henderson did pay for his food – contrary to initial reports about the incident. If he hadn’t been able to, she said they would not have let him go hungry.

“I’ve been struggling with it because I don’t want that young man’s family to think he did pay,’’ she said. “If he was my family member, one of the things that would have been running through my head was I would have paid for his food or if I had known he was hungry, I would have fed him. That’s the troubling thing.”

“Anybody who comes through this café knows that if you don’t have enough money, all of us will go into our own pockets and give you money,’’ she said.

Bibb also wants people to know the officer wasn’t the aggressor by any means. “I don’t’ want that officer’s character to be assassinated,’’ she said. “Anybody in this neighborhood knows if you’re in Ruth’s café for more than 30 minutes, you’re going to see a police officer or a sheriff because they all eat here. That wouldn’t have been anybody from the neighborhood that would do this.”

AL.com journalist Kent Faulk contributed to this report.