Wyclef
Jean
‘s father, The Reverend Gesner Jean, waskilled yesterday in a freak accident. The elder Jean was
pinned against his garage door by an unoccupied 1991 Bentley
owned by Clef.
Police in South Orange were called to The Reverend’s house
at 7:32 p.m., after Wyclef’s sister, Melky, heard a noise
in the family’s garage. Police arrived on the scene and
found the 60 year old Jean wedged between the rear of
the Bentley and the garage wall, according to Capt. Sal
Andreano. The Reverend Jean was alive when paramedics
rushed him to St. Barnabas Medical Center with serious
chest trauma. He was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m., due
to asphyxiation.
"Basically,
it was an accident," Wyclef Jean said yesterday.
"This is something that rarely happens, but it happened.
It was a freak accident." The incident is under investigation,
but detectives have found no signs of foul play. The car
was checked by a mechanic and was not malfunctioning.
The first
time the Reverend saw Clef perform was at Carnegie Hall,
when Wyclef had an assembled an all star cast that included
Whitney Houston and Eric Clapton.
Visitation will be from 6-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday at
Cotton Funeral Home, 130 Main St., Orange. Funeral services
will be from 9-11 a.m. Saturday at Good Shepherd Church
of the Nazarene, 1108 South Orange Ave., Newark.
"It’s
not a sad time. My dad is being reunited with God,"
said Melky said.