Early Saturday morning, two people were killed in an execution-like shooting in the parking lot of a Bronx motel. Police say that Joseph Kernizan, 42, confronted his ex, 38-year-old Tracy Bennett, and her new boyfriend, 50-year-old Wayne Hamilton, as they emerged from the Holiday Motel on the New England Thruway around 3:15 a.m. Saturday morning. Witnesses said Bennett, who had a restraining order against Kernizan, begged for their lives as Kernizan shot them both. “He was always acting suspicious,” next door neighbor Carolina Manzano told the News about Kernizan.
“I looked out my window and saw a lady standing there,” Ricky Gugitta, who was staying in a nearby room with some friends celebrating a pal’s birthday, told the News. “She was begging him not to shoot her, but then he shot her twice and she went down.” Another witness, Damone Jackson, was pulling out of the lot when the gunfire erupted: “I saw the guy running around. He was dancing all over the place,” Jackson said. “Then, I heard the shots. It sounded like about 30 shots. It was like two clips worth.”
Hamilton, a married Milwaukee reggae musician known as Captain Barkey, and Bennett both died at the scene. Manzano added that cops had been called many times to the house Kernizan and Bennett used to share: “We always heard them fighting.” According to the Post, Bennett had obtained a restraining order against Kernizan. Anyone with information in regards to the whereabouts of the suspect is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.
