Darren Anthony Lumar, 38, a businessman and the estranged son-in-law of the singer James Brown, was shot in Atlanta in early November 2008 and died at Northside Hospital. His family's obituary says he died on Thursday, November 6, 2008, the date recorded in the Washington Post's homicide database; an early news report gave November 5. The Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit investigated.
According to United Press International, Lumar managed to drive himself to Northside Hospital to
be treated for gunshot wounds, including wounds to his ankles and wrists. Later accounts said he was attacked in the garage of his home. The full sequence of events, including how many attackers there were and how they reached him, has not been made public.
The investigation drew national attention. In November 2009, nearly a year later, Atlanta magazine reported that police were still chasing his killer and that the trail was going cold. Detectives did not lack information; the magazine said their problem was too many possible suspects, describing a man who lived in mansions he did not own, ran companies that did not make money and owed money to many people. Police never publicly named a suspect. The case was revisited in a 2019 CNN investigation and a 2024 television episode.
Lumar, known to loved ones as "Chip," was born June 15, 1970, in Edgard, Louisiana, the son of Vernadean Underwood and Harold Lumar, and grew up with brothers Dana and Darwin. He finished school at Smyrna Christian Academy near Atlanta, ran a construction crew and later brokered private loans. In 1996 he met Yamma Brown, a pharmacy student and James Brown's daughter; they married at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Norcross and had two children, Sydney and Carrington. The marriage ended in a bitter split. In 2007 he was cut on the forearm at the couple's Buckhead home and Yamma Brown was charged with aggravated assault; her lawyer said she acted in self-defense. Police never linked that episode to his killing. His family published his obituary in New Orleans.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in Buckhead, on Atlanta's affluent north side, an area of large homes and quiet streets where an evening shooting would have been unusual and likely noticed by neighbors.
Atlanta, the capital of Georgia and the center of a metro area of more than 5 million people, recorded roughly 75 to 130 homicides a year between 2007 and 2017. Most victims in those years were young men, and most were killed with guns. Many killings from that period never led to an arrest, and the Post's 2018 investigation counted Atlanta among the cities with large numbers of unsolved homicides. Even a high-profile case like his, with a famous family connection and wide coverage, went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Darren Lumar could be found in news archives or public records. More than 17 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. The Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Atlanta from 2007 through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest. People who did business with Darren Lumar, lent him money or borrowed from him, or who heard someone speak about the shooting, may hold the missing piece. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit at 404-546-4235, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS (404-577-8477), which may pay a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest.
