DaytonDailyNews.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The mother of the accused leader of a drug ring in Yellow Springs and Columbus who hanged himself early Friday, June 27, said police investigators pushed him to his death.

"I wish they had been a little more compassionate. I think they were too rough. They were too intimidating," said Maria Bakari. "They pushed him to the end, and he had nowhere to go."

Her son, Umoja "Iddi" Bakari, 28, was found hanging from a door hinge in a booth inmates use to meet with attorneys, according to a statement from the DeKalb County Sheriff's office.

Maria Bakari was referring to the joint anti-drug task force in Greene County that conducted a months-long investigation into her son's activities. She said her son bore no relation to the man described by police and in recent media coverage.

"He was a good person," she said, declining further comment. Maria Bakari is a massage therapist in Yellow Springs.

Bakari was awaiting extradition to Greene County to face a 22-count felony indictment that claimed he ran a drug ring that distributed cocaine and marijuana in Yellow Springs and Columbus and laundered the proceeds.

Bakari had been put into the booth to separate him from other inmates after he fought with his cellmate and flooded a pod of cells by breaking a sprinkler head, the statement said.

"Certainly any prosecutor would rather present the facts and await a jury verdict than have a defendant take his own life," said Suzanne Schmidt, first assistant prosecutor. "We feel his suicide is a tragedy for the family involved."

The investigation and prosecution of Bakari's drug enterprise, which police spent years building, will continue, Schmidt said.

Bakari's girlfriend, Chelsea Hornsburger, who was arrested in May when police raided six homes Bakari owns in Columbus, still faces eight felony charges for her involvement in the drug ring.

Bakari was considered a fugitive for 56 days before a tip to "America's Most Wanted" led police to the hotel where he was staying in an Atlanta suburb. He was arrested Tuesday, June 24, without incident. Prosecutors hoped to have him extradited to Greene County in 10 days or less.

Bakari was believed to have fled to Atlanta because Robert McDonald, an associate from Yellow Springs, had ties to the area.

Bakari's group also was connected to the 2002 slaying of Yellow Springs High School student Timothy Lopez. Facing felonies in 2004 for kidnapping and shooting a Columbus man, Bakari implicated Michael Rittenhouse, also of Yellow Springs, in the murder and gave police information that led them to Lopez's body. Rittenhouse is serving 15 years to life in Lopez's death.

Cox News Service reporter David Simpson contributed.

Contact the reporter at (937) 225-2342 or cmagan@DaytonDailyNews.com