BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE man accused of killing dancehall artiste Captain Barkey and his girlfriend chose to kill himself after police officers pursued him and he was trapped inside a two-story building in Miami yesterday, Oct. 17.
According to reports Joseph Kernizan, a 42-year-old Haitian music promoter and the ex-boyfriend of Barkey’s girlfriend Tracy Bennett tried to escape through a back door. But he retreated after spotting cops. Several minutes passed and then an adult male who had been locked inside the building with the suspect exited as gunshots rang out.
He was found dead by police surrounded by three handguns and a couple of loaded AK-47s.
Fifty-year-old Barkey whose real name is Wayne Hamilton and 38-year-old Bennett were gunned down in the parking lot of the Holiday Motel in Bronx, New York, around 3:10am on Oct. 13
It was reported that Bennett had taken out a restraining order against Kernizan who was allegedly stalking her and Hamilton weeks before the murders.
The New York Daily News reported that eye witnesses said the killer was waiting when the couple emerged from the Holiday Motel and he blasted more than two dozen bullets at them.
Hamilton reportedly hopped from the passenger seat and tried to escape the hail of bullets that cut him down just outside the motel office.
“The suspect then turned his pistol on the weeping Bennett as she stood next to her parked sedan, its motor still running,” the newspaper report added. Both the Daily News and the New York Post reported witnesses as saying that Bennett pleaded for her life before she, too, was shot dead.
Hamilton was shot several times in the back of the head as he tried to run away, while Bennett was shot in the head as she stood beside a Toyota Camry with the motor running, begging for her life.
Hamilton leaves behind a wife, Mavis Hamilton, who never knew of her husband’s affair.
He was dating Bennett for five years according to sources.
The Jamaican veteran artiste, whose 1996 ‘Go Go Wine’ tune was a hit, was a veteran of the sound system circuit and also had another hit titled ‘Bun fi Bun’.
He eventually partnered with fellow deejay Wickerman (real name David Taylor) and the duo put out a number of hits, recording for giant dancehall producers King Jammys and Steelie and Clevie.
