Man armed with knife and hammer wanted to 'split' love rival's head

A 22-year-old man today admitted taking a knife and hammer to a bar to confront a love rival.

Zacchaeus Rawlins of Sandys was standing in the Pier Six parking lot at 10:30pm on Tuesday night when he was observed by security officers for Bermuda Bistro.

The officer saw Rawlins walking towards him carrying an object in each of his hands. As Rawlins got closer, the officer saw there was a knife in one hand and a hammer with a hatchet attached to it in the other.

The security officer stopped Rawlins before he could go inside the bar and held him by his arms.

Rawlins said to him: “My girlfriend kissed and hugged up some guy. I want to split his head.”

Other security guards then came over and both items were removed from his hand. Police were called and when they arrived, Rawlins were arrested and the items seized.

In a police interview, Rawlins said : “I just wanted to scare her”, referring to his fiancée. 

The court heard Rawlins is a painter and he has been engaged for the past two years.

Rawlins’ lawyer, Nancy Veira told the court it was a incidence of “stupidity”.

“The items that were in his possession are tools on the trade. The kitchen knife and the hammer are always in the seat of this bike.

“He uses his bike to get from site to site. It was a matter of the fiancée and inebriation.”

But Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said: “The problem with these matters of the heart is that there is a great risk of this reoccurring because of the very nature of the type of offence it is.

“If you’re telling me this was a spontaneous emotive reaction then obviously it begs the question in terms of it happening again.”

The matter was adjourned for sentencing on March 13. Mr Warner ordered pre-sentencing reports and placed Rawlins on a 24 hour a day curfew at his home with an electronic monitoring device.

There is a mandatory prison term for having a bladed article in a public place.