Cornered by police, rapper wanted in NJ stabbing kills himself in taxicab after stakeout

A would-be rapper who was the prime suspect in a New Jersey stabbing shot and killed himself in a taxicab as officers closed in, a police official said Wednesday.

Darnell Brittingham, 23, of Hackensack, N.J., who called himself "King Tut," was pronounced dead Tuesday night at the scene in the New York City suburb of Greenburgh, said police Lt. Chris McNerney.

"He knew we were going to arrest him and he decided he wasn't going to go to jail," said Greenburgh police Chief John Kapica.

Police in Hackensack had been looking for Brittingham since Feb. 12, when his girlfriend was stabbed seven times in an apartment there.

Brittingham had been released on $25,000 bail the day before, after police claimed they found cocaine and marijuana stuffed into a teddy bear in his car.

On Tuesday, Hackensack police alerted Greenburgh police that Brittingham's cell phone had been traced to a Greenburgh motel. Officers staked out the motel, saw Brittingham get into a cab with a woman and pulled the cab over, McNerney said.

Officers ordered everyone out of the cab, and the driver and the woman complied. But Brittingham "ignored repeated orders to exit" and remained in the back seat. As several officers converged on the taxi he pulled out a handgun and shot himself in the head, McNerney said.

Paramedics pulled Brittingham from the cab, but could not revive him. His body was taken to the Westchester County morgue.

McNerney said tests were under way on the gun.

He said the cab driver and the woman accompanying Brittingham were questioned but not charged, and their names were not made public.

Brittingham apparently did not have a record label. Several music Web sites describe him as affiliated with the group Dipset.