The Queens shipowner who shot and wounded an NYPD officer along with an innocent bystander before he was shot, he was a career criminal with more than 17 felony arrests dating back to the 1980s, police said.

Gary “Green Eyes” Worthy was already on life parole when he robbed two stores on Hillside Ave. and Guy Brewer Blvd. Tuesday night, each time firing a bullet into the air from his revolver to frighten the workers into compliance, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

The robberies sparked a fatal confrontation between Worthy and Officer Rich Wong, who was shot in the leg during the wild exchange of gunfire nearby. Jamaica Ave. and 164th St. in Jamaica around 6:30 p.m

Worthy served more than 14 years in prison after being convicted of drug and gun possession and burglary in 2009. He was released in 2021 and put on life parole.

Since his release, he has been arrested seven times, mostly for drug possession, burglary and assault, police said.

“His last arrest was six days ago for narcotics possession and resisting arrest,” Kenny said at a news conference at Jamaica Hospital, where Officer Wong was treated and is recovering. “(He) was released on his own recognizance on that charge.”

Worthy’s last known address was in South Jamaica. At the time of his death, he had three pending cases in Queens and was suspected of committing a robbery and a robbery, police said.

His first arrest was in 1984, when he was arrested for possession of marijuana, but he moved on to theft, robbery and drug possession by the late 80s.

In 1994, he was arrested on charges of murder. He eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter for that crime, Mayor Adams said.

“(He is) a career and dangerous criminal who didn’t think twice about killing a police officer,” Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said of Worthy at Tuesday’s news conference.

Worthy should have been thrown back behind bars on his first arrest after his release from prison, Hendry said. Instead, he was repeatedly allowed to return to the streets, where he intentionally pulled his gun during two robberies and then tried to end the life of a police officer, the union chief said.

“We will continue to take dangerous criminals off the streets. We have your back,” Hendry said. “I know what’s got your back — the criminal justice system. They continue to disappoint us every day.”

Wong and his partner were searching for the person responsible for the back-to-back attacks when a witness pointed Worthy out.

Officers asked Worthy to pull over, but he refused. He ran, pulled a gun and fired at the officers, striking Wong in the leg.

A 26-year-old woman shopping on Jamaica Ave. she was also hit in the leg, police said. The woman was behind Wong and his partner when she was hit. Forensic investigators are trying to determine whether the woman was struck by the bullet that went through the seven-year NYPD veteran’s leg or by shrapnel.

Worthy fired a shot at the officers, Kenny said. A wounded Wong fired back, shooting Worthy in the face, police said.

“It was going off target. The policeman told him about four times: “Don’t run. Don’t run away’. After that, a shot rang out,” Henry Jaikeren, a street vendor who was working across the street at the time, told the Daily News. “The guy turned around and the cop shot him four more times in the stomach. He was dead on the ground.”

Mayor Adams said Tuesday’s shooting was the second time in two days that citizens have “witnessed a criminal justice system that has failed New Yorkers.”

On Monday, homeless man Ramon Rivera, who had been arrested repeatedly for low-level crimes and he had never been sentenced to more than a year in prisonwas arrested for butchering three innocent people during a frenzied stabbing spree across Manhattan.