Popular Atlanta DJ Fernando William Barnes, aka DJ Nando, was gunned down outside his Clayton County home early Tuesday morning, the AJC reports. He was found by his live-in girlfriend.
Friends say Shonte Renee arrived home around 4:00 a.m. and found Barnes, 38, bleeding heavily in the driveway of his home on Oak Mill Court Mt. near Zion Boulevard.
Barnes was extremely well-liked by Atlantans who patronized the adult entertainment nightclubs Onyx in Midtown and Magic City in downtown Atlanta where he worked. “His funeral will be cray,” said one friend.
The incident happened around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to neighbor Cindy Copeland, who heard a “very large bang” and checked her clock. “I thought the power went out,” she said.
Copeland told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she heard “a hysterical woman, on her phone, walking up and down the street, yelling, ‘my baby, my baby.’”
Copeland added: “After listening to her, I realized, there’s five or six police cars out here, and that’s when I started realizing something very serious has happened down our street here.”
Friends identified that woman as Shonte Renee, Barnes’ live-in girlfriend, a dancer at Follies strip club in northeast Atlanta.
Barnes died in her arms, according to local rap artist Mac Mustang. “I couldn’t imagine the one I love dying in my arms at the hands of another human,” he tweeted earlier today.
Friends say Barnes always carried a large amount of cash on him, and he often “made it rain” on strippers at Follies. “He spent that check. He showed mad love to the girls. He had all the beautiful women. They all loved him,” a source said.
“They just set him up to kill him — not even rob him,” she said.
A distraught Renee updated her social media accounts with mournful posts. “What do I do now,” she tweeted, along with a link to a family photo of herself and DJ Nando.
Clayton County Police have not made any arrests in this case.
