Murder & suicide by fire in Bx.
A MAN’S hatred of his girlfriend burned so hot that he set her and himself on fire in a horrific murdersuicide in the Bronx, police and neighbors said Sunday.
The blaze erupted Saturday at 1:15 p.m. on Adams Place in Belmont.
The man died soon after he was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, authorities said. Berta Booker, 49, who was identified as the girlfriend, was also taken to St. Barnabas. She died overnight, said police.
A third victim, a man about 50 years old, was injured in the blaze. His condition was unclear on Sunday.
Police have not released the identities of either man.
“She tried to break it off with him,” Booker’s distraught sister-inlaw, Belinda Booker, told the Daily News. “She said he was mentally acting strange and she wanted to get away from him. I can’t help but think that this could have been avoided.”
Booker has two adult children, a 20-year-old daughter and a 26-year-old son, her sister-in-law said. She started seeing the boyfriend last summer, Belinda Booker said.
“Sometimes people get worse and worse the more you know them. I think she really wanted to get away from him,” she said. A friend of the dead man said he was with him when he bought a lighter shortly before the fire.
The two were on their way to run an errand when the man with the lighter stopped off to see his girlfriend and drop off his laundry, leaving the car running, the friend said.
“Usually he does this and it takes him about a minute to come back downstairs. But it was like 15 minutes, so I thought, ‘Oh, they’re arguing again,’ ” said the friend, who declined to give his name.
“I heard them yelling and screaming inside, but it sounded like it always does when they fight. I didn’t think this time was any different.”
The pal, who described the boyfriend as being 43 and from Brooklyn, said he did not seem distressed before the attack.
“I had no idea what was going on or what had happened,” the friend said.
“All of a sudden they were bringing them out on the stretchers and he was black, as black as my shirt. All his face, his chest, his arms and hands were burnt to a crisp. He was like red with blood on his chest, and had black charred skin. He was still smoking. There was smoke coming off his skin.”