Amiri Baraka's Daughter Killed

Thursday August 14

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) - A daughter of New Jersey's deposed poet laureate and the daughter's friend were found shot to death in a home, authorities said Wednesday.

The bodies of Shani Baraka, 31, and Rayshon Holmes, 30, were discovered Tuesday night in the Piscataway home that Shani Baraka shared with her sister, according to prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.

Police were searching for Shani Baraka'a brother-in-law, James Coleman, who also goes by the name Ibn El-Amin Pasha, Kaplan said. Coleman is the estranged husband of Wanda Pasha, Shani Baraka's sister. Coleman was not called a suspect.

Amiri Baraka, the former poet laureate, said Wanda Pasha made several domestic violence complaints against Coleman, from whom she separated in February. He said Wanda Pasha was in Las Vegas at the time of the shootings.

Kaplan said Coleman was not served with two complaints and has been considered a fugitive since July.

Amiri Baraka's post as poet laureate was eliminated last month after he wrote a poem suggesting that Israel had advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Investigators do not believe the uproar over the poem had anything to do with the shootings.

Family Tensions Flare As Barakas Confront Suspect in Slayings

By Dore Carroll
Star-Ledger Staff

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Grief gave way to anger yesterday for the family of poet and Newark activist Amiri Baraka during a court appearance for the man suspected of fatally shooting Baraka's daughter and her friend in Piscataway last week.

Muttering obscenities to himself, Baraka glared across the New Brunswick courtroom at James Coleman, the estranged husband of Baraka's other daughter, Wanda Pasha.

Coleman has not been charged in the deaths of Shani Baraka, 31, and Rayshon Holmes, 30, who were found shot multiple times in the family room of Pasha's Piscataway home last Tuesday, but is the only suspect authorities have identified.

Coleman, 35, who is also known as Ibn El-Amin Pasha, surrendered to Piscataway police about 1 p.m. Sunday and is being held in the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick on charges of threatening to kill Pasha in June. Coleman pleaded not guilty yesterday to that charge.

Frustrated that no one has been charged in the women's death, Baraka's family lashed out at Coleman during his courtroom appearance.

"You know damn well you did it!" Shani's mother, Amina Baraka, shouted at the end of Coleman's arraignment.

"You're a coward!" another Baraka relative yelled as the family filed out of the courtroom.

Family members fear for Pasha's safety and are upset that Coleman could be released if he posts the $250,000 bail set yesterday by Judge Phillip Lewis Paley.

"This man is an obvious perpetrator of a double homicide and these charges need to be upgraded immediately," said Amiri Baraka, who was New Jersey's poet laureate until his job was eliminated this year because of a controversial poem he wrote.

Amina Baraka said that given the history of domestic violence between Pasha and Coleman, he should remain behind bars.

"He has no business on the street endangering my other children's lives," Amina Baraka said. "I do not want him on the street."

First Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor William Lamb said Coleman is considered a flight risk, adding that additional charges may be filed against him.

"As we develop a more rounded picture of the domestic situation" between Coleman and Pasha, Lamb said it becomes clear that the June 15 death threat "was not an isolated event, but part of a recurring pattern of domestic violence."

Pasha threw Coleman out of the house in January and obtained a restraining order against him in April. His behavior worsened in recent months, according to Pasha's brothers, and he allegedly cut a hole in her pool and burned her car.

In the charges filed July 2, Coleman is accused of cocking a gun at Pasha's head and threatening to kill her.

Lamb said Coleman's case will be presented to a grand jury Sept. 2.

Coleman's attorney, Hassen Abdellah of Elizabeth, declined to discuss details of the murder investigation.

"To date, there's been no documentation that links my client to the crime scene," Abdellah said. "As far as I'm concerned, there are no murder charges."

Authorities would not disclose what, if any, evidence they have linking Coleman to the crime scene in Piscataway.

"There is information that we have, leads that we are pursuing, people we want to talk to," Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said.

Shani Baraka, a Newark teacher and girls high school basketball coach, had been staying with her sister in Piscataway, and returned with Holmes last week to collect some belongings when they were shot, authorities said.

Both women's cars were stolen from the driveway. Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Thomas Kapsak said investigators are processing Shani Baraka's red Mercedes- Benz found a half-mile from the crime scene, looking for fingerprints and other evidence.

"We are still processing the car, looking very closely for all trace evidence," Kapsak said. Authorities are continuing to search for Holmes' vehicle, a white 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser with New Jersey license plate MPP-19Z.

During his court appearance, Coleman, who wore glasses and a short beard, stood handcuffed in the jury box. He provided a Newark post office box as his address.

Abdellah said he did not want Coleman's whereabouts made public, because of escalating tensions between him and the victims' families.

Emmanuel Avraham, a cousin of Coleman, said Coleman is saddened by what happened. "He expressed to me that he didn't have anything to do with that," Avraham said. "If he's not the one who did this, we have to find out who did."

The situation between Coleman's relatives and the Barakas is so volatile that Avraham said he fears for Coleman's safety if he is released. "It's a very touchy situation right now," he said.

Leaving Coleman in custody may be the best thing for everyone involved, Abdellah said.

"I understand the (Coleman) family don't want to believe it's him," said Ras Baraka, Shani Baraka's brother and Newark deputy mayor. "They know like everybody else knows what was
going on. They just got to face it."

"We're going to ascertain what the truth is," Ras Baraka said. "We'll find out what the truth is because this is not going to be no unsolved crime. This is going to be solved. We're going to know who, why and what."

At a vigil last night outside Amiri Baraka's Newark home, more than 100 people rallied to stop violence against women. Some, including the Barakas, questioned whether homophobia
was a motive for the slayings.

"Did he kill them because they were women? Did he kill them because they were gay?" Baraka asked the crowd. He asked residents with information about the shootings to report it to authorities.

Source: Staff Writer Barry Carter contributed to this report. www.nj.com/news/ledger/essex/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1061269945219780.xml 

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