A former MMA fighter and longtime anti-gun violence activist is accused of shooting a man in the head at a children’s pool party, possibly in retaliation for the murder of his son just a year ago.
Lumumba Sayers Sr., 46, is accused of approaching the man and shooting him in the head at close range on Aug. 10 in Commerce, Colorado, according to an affidavit obtained by 9News.
Sayers Sr. was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault.
The victim, identified as 28-year-old Malcolm Watson, was hosting the party for his five-year-old son.
The shooting is believed to be retaliation for the shooting of Lumumba Sayers Jr. last year at the corner of 28th and Welton streets in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, the outlet added.
Sayers Jr., 23, father of a two-month-old son, was among the two people shot at around 3:50 a.m. on August 19, 2023.
“Witnesses had stated that he (the shooter’s son) had been murdered by a friend of the deceased about a year ago (…) and that this murder was probably an act of retaliation or revenge,” the affidavit said about the “possible motive.”
Watson was shot three times and pronounced dead at the scene.
Watson’s sister maintained her brother’s innocence and remembered him as someone who wanted to be a good father and protect his sisters before questioning the shooter’s motives.
“How can it be a revenge killing when my brother had nothing to do with it?” Watson’s sister told KUSA.
Watson was believed to have had ties to Tyrell Braxton, the man arrested and charged with Sayers Jr.’s murder, but the affidavit did not provide any details about their relationship, the outlet said.
Braxton, 24, was arrested a month after the shooting in 2023 and charged with murder, but the case was later dropped.
Under Colorado state law, the records will be sealed when the case is dismissed, but Braxton still faces charges in federal court for illegal possession of ammunition, ABC 7 Denver reported.
Sayers Sr. founded the Heavy Hands Heavy Hearts boxing gym in Aurora.
The community leader also runs the movement “Gloves Up Guns Down: Get Your Heads Up in the Hood,” a foundation founded by his son with the goal of preventing young people from violence through structured education and instilling a sense of belonging.
Sayer’s son ran programs at his father’s gym that took children off the streets.
After Sayer Jr.’s death, the grieving father lamented that his son had been killed in the very area he had worked to protect and improve.
“He stopped a lot of the violence here in the community,” Sayers Sr. previously told KMGH-TV. “He organized boxing matches and stuff and showed the kids that there are other ways.”
“This coward shot my son. The community that we protect, you know, that we try to take care of, the community that he wanted to take in a different direction, that he grew up in, they killed my son,” he added.
Another leader in Sayers’ community said the father was “in a dark place” after Sayers Jr.’s death.
“When someone goes through something like this, they need ongoing support in the grieving process, the grief doesn’t go away,” Topazz McBride, the owner of Aurora resource center Rediscovery Through Wellness, told the outlet. “People have their own lives and so they start to get back to their own sense of normalcy, which wasn’t necessarily the case with Lumumba.”
“He was so close to his son that he grieved in a different way because he was there for the community and other families who have lost children to gun violence,” McBride added.
Sayers Sr. is being held at the Adams County Detention Facility on $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court on August 15.
