Rapper on trial for murder testifies in own defence

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On trial for second-degree murder, the Regent Park rapper known as Big Rax is telling the jury that he was afraid for his life.

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In fact, he said “I was scared for my life” at least half a dozen times.

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In his cream suit and hair neatly pulled back in a braid, Ridge Kazumba calmly explained that his friend had just been gunned down the month before and he’d recently received death threats just before he opened fire in a St. Clair Ave. restaurant on that summer evening in August 2023, leaving 23-year-old Negus Henry-Robinson dead.

There was always a target on his back, Kazumba told his defence lawyer, Mary Cremer, and he thought his time was up. “My reality, where I come from, when you kill an artist from Regent Park, it’s like a badge of honour.”

Pleaded not guilty

Five weeks into his trial, where he’s pleaded not guilty to the Aug. 24, 2023 murder at the Royal Caribbean Cafe on St. Clair Ave., Kazumba told the jury that he was diagnosed with PTSD due to his mom committing suicide in their Regent Park home and the loss of so many of his friends to gun violence — “more than I can count on my fingers” — including up-and-coming rapper Jahvante Smart, known as Smoke Dawg, in 2018.

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In her opening statement, Crown attorney Elizabeth Jackson told jurors Henry-Robinson had gone to the Royal Caribbean Cafe to pick up food with his friend, Thulani Moncrieffe-Belmar, while Kazumba was seated and eating a meal with two friends. All three men had concealed handguns, she said.

“Nakhari Henry-Robinson entered the restaurant. Ridge Kazumba stood up and fired repeatedly at Henry-Robinson who fled,” the prosecutor alleged. “Thulani Moncrieffe-Belmar then shot at Ridge Kazumba and then ducked down and fired multiple shots over a counter while crouched behind it. All of this is captured on clear video surveillance footage.”

Court has heard 22 bullets were fired in the small restaurant.

“At no point does Nakhari Henry-Robinson fire a gun, in fact he does not take a gun out of his clothing at any point in the restaurant,” Jackson said. “I expect the evidence will be clear that only two guns were fired that evening – one by Ridge Kazumba and the other by Thulani Moncrieffe-Belmar.”

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Moncrieffe-Belmare has pleaded not guilty to the reckless discharge of his firearm.

Music career had taken off

Kazumba testified that his music career had taken off — he’d toured Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. — and often collaborated with his close friend and famous fellow Regent Park rapper, Mustafa the Poet, including performing with him at the Junos in 2022.

In July 2023, Kazumba was in Congo visiting his father when he got a frightened call from Mustafa’s older brother, Mohamed Ahmed — word on the street was that people wanted to kill Kazumba and his son. The rapper made emergency arrangements back home to move his child to a safer address.

The next day, he got a tearful call from Mustafa: Ahmed had been shot and killed.

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Kazumba cut his trip short and rushed home. He said he was nervous, changed his routine and for the first time, bought a gun from some drug dealers downtown. “I was scared for my life at this point, I was scared for my son’s life,” he explained. “My friend Mohamed just got shot and killed.”

‘Afraid for my life’

On Aug. 24, he packed his gun and headed to a recording session at a studio at Queen and Dufferin Sts. “I was afraid for my life,” he said, explaining why he took his firearm along.

After a few hours, he and two of his collaborators were hungry and Ubered to Royal’s for Jamaican food. As they ate, Kazumba said he noticed two masked men and a woman peering through the glass door of the restaurant. He thought it was “extremely weird” and stopped eating.

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“My body froze,” he recalled. “I’m thinking to myself’ ‘This is it.’”

And how was he feeling? “I was scared for my life.”

Only one of the two masked men entered with the woman and he was glaring at him, Kazumba continued. “I’m scared for my life because I’m in a restaurant with these people.”

The accused killer will continue his story on Wednesday — but we know how this tragic story ends.

Henry-Robinson entered the restaurant a few minutes later. Shots hit him in the chest and then in the back as he turned to flee. He staggered to a nearby pizza shop, hid his loaded handgun under a concrete barrier and died shortly after from the gunshot wound to his chest.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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