Rapper on trial for murder testifies in own defence

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At his second-degree murder trial, the Regent Park rapper known as Big Rax tells jurors he fears for his life.

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

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In his cream suit and his hair neatly braided, Ridge Kazumba calmly explained that his friend had been shot a month earlier and had recently received death threats just before he opened fire at a restaurant on St. Clair Avenue that summer evening in August 2023, leaving 23-year-old Negus Henry-Robinson dead.

Kazumba told his lawyer, Mary Kremer, that he always had a target on his back and he thought his time was up. “In my reality, where I come from, when you kill the artist from Regent's Park, it's like a badge of honor.”

Pleaded not guilty

Five weeks into his trial, in which he pleaded not guilty to the Aug. 24, 2023, murder at the Royal Caribbean Cafe on St. Clair Avenue, Kazumba told jurors he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because his mother committed suicide in their Regent Park home and because so many of his friends had died as a result of gun violence – “more than I can count on my fingers,” including the up-and-coming rapper. Javante Smart, known as Smoke Dawg, in 2018.

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In her opening address, Crown lawyer Elizabeth Jackson told the jury: Henry-Robinson went to the Royal Caribbean cafe for food with his friend Thulani Moncrieffe-Belmare, while Kazumba sat and ate with two friends. All three had pistols hidden, she said.

“Nahari Henry-Robinson entered the restaurant. Ridge Kazumba stood up and shot Henry-Robinson several times as he fled,” the prosecutor said. “Thulani Moncrieffe-Belmare then shot at Ridge Kazumba and then ducked and fired several shots through the counter while crouching behind it. All of this was captured on clear CCTV footage.”

The court heard 22 bullets were fired at the small restaurant.

“Nahari Henry-Robinson does not fire a gun at any time, nor does he remove a gun from under his clothing at any point in the restaurant,” Jackson said. “I expect that the evidence will be clear that only two guns were fired that evening – one by Ridge Kazumba and the other by Thulani Moncrieffe-Belmare.”

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Moncrieff-Belmare pleaded not guilty to reckless discharge of a firearm.

Music career took off

Kazumba said his music career took off – he toured Canada, the US and the UK – and frequently collaborated with his close friend and famous Regent Park rapper Mustafa the Poet, including performing with him at the 2022 Junos.

In July 2023, Kazumba was in the Congo visiting his father when he received a phone call from Mustafa's frightened older brother Mohamed Ahmed – there were rumors on the street that people wanted to kill Kazumba and his son. The rapper took emergency measures to return home to move his child to a safer place.

The next day, Mustafa called him with tears in his eyes: Ahmed had been shot.

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Kazumba cut short his trip and rushed home. He said he was nervous, changed his daily routine and bought a gun for the first time from drug dealers downtown. “At that moment I was afraid for my life, I was afraid for my son’s life,” he explained. “My friend Mohamed just got shot.”

“I'm afraid for my life”

On August 24, he packed his gun and went to record at Queen and Dufferin Sts. “I was afraid for my life,” he said, explaining why he took the firearm with him.

A few hours later, he and two of his employees got hungry and went to the Royal Restaurant for Jamaican food. While they were eating, Kazumba said he noticed two masked men and a woman peering out of the restaurant's glass door. He thought it was “extremely strange” and stopped eating.

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“My body was frozen,” he recalled. “I think to myself, 'This is it.'

And how did he feel? “I was afraid for my life.”

“Only one of the two masked men entered with the woman and glared 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 will end.

Henry-Robinson entered the restaurant a few minutes later. The shots hit him in the chest and then in the back as he turned to run. He staggered to a nearby pizzeria, hid a loaded pistol under a concrete barrier and soon died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

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