A beautiful soul who was the life of the party.
This is how one friend of Cher Maximen will remember her, after the young mother died from stab injuries she sustained at Notting Hill Carnival.
Hakeem Stevens first met Cher in 2019. He’d just started a music charity that put on events for young people of colour trying to break into creative industries.
She worked on panel events for the charity and her personality suited the role perfectly. “She was a beautiful person, both inside and out. She was the life of the party with a beautiful soul,” Hakeem says.
“She brought a lot of energy to the team, was so positive and worked so well as a talent liaison team member. She was just so positive and very outgoing.”
Cher worked on his team up until she fell pregnant but they regularly kept in touch. Hakeem spoke to her the day before she went to carnival.
“Ironically, she messaged me the day before, because I’ve had a few health issues, and she reached out to me as she’d seen I was doing some sponsored runs and activities, and she messaged me on the Saturday to wish me good luck and say, ‘keep up the good work’ and ‘I’m really proud of you’.”
He found out the 32-year-old had died on Saturday via a news article on his phone while he was on the tube.
“I then heard what happened at carnival earlier this week, but literally it was only yesterday that I found out it was her.
“I had no idea because I’d messaged her during the week, and she didn’t respond. But I didn’t think anything of it. Then on Saturday when that news report came through my phone, I was just devastated.
“I even messaged her and asked if it was true. I didn’t get a response.”
Cher had been at the annual carnival in northwest London with family and friends, including her three-year-old daughter, on Sunday when she was attacked shortly before 6pm.
She had been receiving treatment for her injuries in hospital, but died six days later.
In a separate incident, Mussie Imentu, a successful chef who was visiting London from Dubai, also died following a head injury he suffered on Bank Holiday Monday in the vicinity of the carnival.
Family of carnival victim ‘still lost’ two years on
Their deaths are the first since 2022 when musician and then father-to-be Takayo Nembhard, 21, was attacked at the event.
He had taken his younger sister for her 18th birthday, but only she returned home.
His father Vincent Nembhard empathises with Mussie and Cher’s families. “I’m looking at those parents, and I know what we are going through.
“It will feel like it’s not real, but then it’s going to hit them hard and it’s going to stay with them. And it is not nice.”
Takayo’s parents told Sky News they are “broken” and “still lost” two years on.
“No parent should have to bury a child. Our lives completely changed overnight, our lives were just blown out of the water,” Sandra Nembhard says.
“We try to keep going but it’s hard. There’s just days where we just can’t do it.
“We just think… when are we going to see our son and then this pain will be over. That’s what we strive for. It sounds really bad to say, but that is what we strive for, just to see him again.”
Despite several arrests being made in connection with Takayo’s death, no one has been charged.
‘The police cannot police carnival’
This lack of justice fuels the Nembhard’s anger towards the lack of control of the event.
They are fed up with the violent crime and suggest at the very least, the introduction of metal detectors upon entrance to the event, to try and find those there for the wrong reasons.
Mrs Nembhard says not enough is being done to make the event safe for all. “If they can’t find a way to keep everybody safe, then I say to stop it. Absolutely.”
The police cannot police carnival, there’s too many people there,” Mr Nembard says.
“You cannot look after everybody. Once you got people carrying a knife in a crowd and you can hardly move, you got children, you’ve got women.
“Anybody could walk up to you and do anything and no one knows who it is. So it is not a safe place.
“For me, it’s not safe. And I can say it’s not safe because I lost my son there.”
Mr Nembard adds that carnival’s values are being lost to some people’s violent agenda.
“We all want the carnival, it’s kind of our culture. We want it, that’s what we grew up on. But we have to try and make it safe and we don’t know how we can do that.
“We have to try and make it safe as people can currently get in with a weapon, and that’s what’s causing the problem.”
He adds: “This is still going to keep happening. It will keep happening if we don’t make it safe.”
