Haitian music promoter wanted for murder kills himself in North Miami

Via the Miami Herald:

A popular figure in the Haitian music industry wanted for the double-homicide of his ex-girlfriend and her well-known reggae dancehall artist boyfriend in New York died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a North Miami-Dade apartment after U.S. Marshal police officers surrounded the building.

The U.S. Marshals’ fugitive taskforce followed Joseph Kernizan’s trail from New York to North Miami. Police feared he would flee to his native Haiti.

Interviews with several of Kernizan’s acquaintances led investigators to a North Miami apartment building on Northwest 157th Street and Second Avenue, said Barry Golden, a spokesman with the U.S. Marshals office.

Golden said federal agents arrived at the North Miami quadruplex at 10:14 p.m. Tuesday.

"We surrounded that location from all sides. We pulled in one of our vehicles, we had lights and a PA and we asked for residents of the apartments to step outside," he said.

At one point, investigators saw Kernizan stick his head out of a ground-floor apartment window, Golden said. He then attempted to run out a back door, but when he saw police officers he shut the door and locked it, Golden said.

Minutes later, someone who had been inside the apartment with Kernizan came out and police heard shots. Police entered the one-bedroom apartment through a back window.

"When we went in, he was dead," Golden said. Kernizan shot himself, he said. Police say they found three handguns and two loaded AK-47 guns at the scene.

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