Former MMA fighter allegedly shoots man dead at party in suspected revenge for son’s d3ath
A former MMA fighter, Lumumba Sayers Sr., who is a longtime anti-gun violence advocate allegedly shot a man in the head at a child’s pool party in possible retaliation for his son’s murder just a year ago.
Lumumba Sayers Sr., 46, reportedly walked up to the man and shot him in the head at close range in Commerce, Colorado on August 10, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by 9News said.
Sayers Sr. has been charged with first-degree murder and felony menacing.
The victim, identified as 28-year-old Malcolm Watson, was hosting the party for his 5-year-old son.
Police believed the shooting to be possible retaliation for last year’s shooting of Sayers’ son, Lumumba Sayers Jr. around their neighbourhood, the outlet added.
Sayers Jr., 23, a father of a two-month-old son, was among the two people fatally shot at around 3:50 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2023.
“Witnesses had stated the (shooter’s son) had been murdered about a year ago by a friend of the deceased (…) and this murder was probably in retaliation or revenge,” the affidavit said of the “possible motive.”
Watson was shot three times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Watson’s sister claimed her brother was innocent and remembered him as someone who wanted to be a great father and protect his sisters before blasting the shooter’s motives.
“How is it a revenge killing if my brother isn’t the one who had anything to do with it?” Watson’s sister told KUSA.
Watson was believed to have been connected to Tyrell Braxton, the man arrested and charged in Sayers Jr.’s murder, but the affidavit did not detail their relationship.
Braxton, 24, was arrested and charged with murder a month after the 2023 shooting but the case was later dismissed.
Following Sayer Jr.’s death, the grieving father cried out that his son was killed in the same area that he worked to protect and make better.
“He was stopping a lot of the violence here in the community,” Sayers Sr. previously told KMGH-TV. “Putting on boxing matches and stuff and showing these kids that there’s a different way.”
“This coward shot my son. The community that we protect, you know, we try to provide for, the community that he tried to help guide in a different direction that he grew up in, they killed my son,” he added.
