Wayne Bush had been quickly identified as the suspect in Jafar Lewis’ killing, and police had been seeking him prior to his surrender yesterday.
TRENTON — A man with close ties to the family of slain hip hop artist Jafar Lewis has been charged with his murder, police said yesterday. Lewis was shot during a street confrontation in the North Ward Aug. 23.
His alleged killer, Wayne Bush, 35, was alongside his lawyer yesterday when he turned himself in to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office around 9 a.m., Police Lt. Mark Kieffer said.
Bush had been quickly identified as the suspect in Lewis’ killing, and police had been seeking him prior to his surrender yesterday.
Lewis, who his mother said was a peacemaker in the family, had quarreled with Bush, who was engaged to his mother’s niece. But Bush and Lewis had a long talk the night before the killing, and Lewis left thinking all was resolved, Lewis’ fiancée Twanna Robinson said.
So when Lewis and Robinson drove up to Middle Rose Street in Trenton the night of Aug. 23 and saw Bush’s car stopped across the street, there was no reason to believe there was any danger, Robinson said last Saturday. Lewis got out, greeted Bush, and Bush shot him dead, she said.
Lewis’ loved ones know Bush well — he’s been around them for years at holidays and family gatherings.
“My niece’s boyfriend killed my son,” Lewis’ mother Jacqueline sobbed last Saturday.
Robinson was feet away from Lewis when he was shot dead. Robinson said Saturday she looked into Bush’s eyes right after he fired the gun and saw only a stunned nothingness.
“I started screaming, ‘You going to jail!’” Robinson said.
Robinson said she ran to Lewis’ side as she was screaming, and Bush ran away. Last Saturday afternoon, she was fearful Bush would come after her for being an eyewitness to the killing. She said she had received text messages from him threatening her life, and was afraid to go to sleep until he had been caught.
Bush was being held yesterday on $1 million full cash bail. He was charged with murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, and certain persons not to possess a weapon.
Authorities made an arrest early yesterday in another, unrelated city homicide: the killing of 31-year-old Rasheen Jones on July 23.
Knowell Desmond, 21, was arrested in Lindenwald by the U.S. Marshals NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force, Kieffer said. He was charged with murder, felony murder, robbery, and weapons charges and is being held on $1 million full cash bail.
City police have said Jones, a father of two, was robbed as he walked home on East Stuyvesant Avenue from a store on Prospect Street. Zaire Smith, 18, was also arrested in the killing, on Aug. 22. Kieffer said that both Smith and Desmond played a role in Jones’ murder.
Much of the investigation into Jones’ murder was conducted by Detective Edgar Rios before he was critically wounded during a shooting in the line of duty Aug. 15. Detective Gary Britton continued the work on the case that led to Desmond’s arrest, Kieffer said. Rios remained at Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton yesterday in critical but stable condition, as he has been since the shooting.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
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