What is going on with these folks?



Buckhead slaying of James Brown’s ex-son-in-law called contract killing
By TIM EBERLY

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The former son-in-law of music legend James Brown was slain last week after what police describe as a violent struggle in the garage of his Buckhead townhouse.

The case appears to be a contract killing, Atlanta police homicide Det. Bill Boyd said early Thursday. Boyd said the killing may be related to the victim’s business dealings, but he would not elaborate.


• Atlanta and Fulton County news Darren Lumar, 38, suffered gunshot wounds to both ankles and wrists and to the middle of his chest on Nov. 5, but was able to drive himself to Northside Hospital for treatment, Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows said.

He died from his wounds within a day, Meadows said.

Police have not made any arrests but have some leads.

“He did business with a lot of people,” Boyd said. “I’ve got too many [potential] suspects, a lot of people I’ve got to track down and talk to.”

Lumar told the AJC last year that he was involved in investment banking.

“Some people took objection to the way he did business,” Meadows said.

Lumar was married to Yamma Brown Lumar, one of James Brown’s daughters.

Brown, nicknamed the “Godfather of Soul,” died at age 73 in December 2006 of heart failure at Atlanta’s Emory Crawford Long Hospital.

Darren and Yamma Lumar had two children and lived on Tuxedo Court in Buckhead, according to a June 2007 account of the couple’s divorce proceedings in the AJC.

The contentious divorce was made final in October 2007, Fulton County court records show.

The couple have since resolved their differences and “had become friends over the past year and a half,” Boyd said.

Last week, when Darren Lumar drove up to the townhouse off Roswell Road in Buckhead where he most recently lived, someone waited outside, Meadows said.

As Lumar pulled his car into his garage, the suspect rushed in before the door closed. A violent struggle followed, as was evident by blood stains and the location of Lumar’s wounds, Meadows said.

Police also found items, including an ear piece for a cellular telephone, scattered throughout the garage, the police lieutenant said.

Meadows said a witness spotted the suspect lurking around Lumar’s townhouse and smoking cigarettes before he arrived.

The suspect was described as a man in his mid-30s, about 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall.

-Staff writer Chandler Brown contributed to this article.