Q:

1.9 - Adding Image To Media Gallery Using Import Behavior

I'm currently writing a module which in its essence applies a pre-defined set of images to a product media gallery. It basically loops through a delimited list of filenames and uses addImageToMediaGallery to add the images to the product. 
The code in the observer is:
        $ourProduct = $observer->getEvent()->getProduct();

        $importDir = Mage::getBaseDir('media') . DS . 'import';

        $tID =  $this->_getRequest()->getPost('template_id');
        $productsData = Mage::helper("imageimport")->getMedia($tID);

        $k=0;
        foreach($productsData as $fileName){

            $k++;
            $filePath = trim($importDir. DS . $fileName);
            if($fileName!="") {
                if (file_exists($filePath)) {
                    $ourProduct->addImageToMediaGallery($filePath, array('image', 'small_image', 'thumbnail'), false, true);
                    $ourProduct->save();
                    Mage::log('Adding image '. $filePath .' to ' . $ourProduct->getSku(), null, 'imageimport.log');

                } else {
                    Mage::log('File does NOT exist: ' . $filePath, null, 'imageimport.log');
                    echo "<br>";
                }
            }
        }

The problem I have with this is that it just creates another image in the media/catalog folder. This site has a buttload of products so having this feature will create needless duplicates of the same image.
So the question I'm posing is - within the confines of addImageToMediaGallery, am I able to simply reference an image instead of duplicating it?
If not, am I somehow able to utilize Magento's import dataflow behavior within an extension? 
Hopefully I've titled this correctly - it's a strange question to ask. 
Thanks

A:

Figured this out myself. Instead of wracking my head over import behavior, I decided to just execute SQL queries for now. 
Since we had to create a faux folder location for these new images (ie t/s/t-shirt.jpg), I added this function:
public function mediaUrl($fileName){
    $chars = substr($fileName, 0,2);
    $chars = str_split($chars);
    $folder = "/" . implode('/', $chars);
    return $folder . "/" . $fileName;
    //t/r/trouser-front_6_1_2.png for example.
}

Initializing the connection:
$resource = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource');
$writeConnection = $resource->getConnection('core_write');
$cpemg = $resource->getTableName('catalog_product_entity_media_gallery');

And then within the file_exists check (replacing addImageToMediaGallery):
NOTE! 88 is the media_gallery attribute. MAKE SURE TO CHECK THIS IS STILL THE CASE OTHERWISE YOU WILL BURN
//Get url of image already in catalogue
$url = $this->mediaUrl($fileName);
$pId = $ourProduct->getId();

$insertQ = "INSERT INTO {$cpemg} (attribute_id,entity_id,value)
values('88','$pId','$url')";
$writeConnection->query($insertQ); 

