‘This Coward Shot My Son’: MMA Dad Inflicts Fatal Vigilante Justice At 5-Year-Old’s Birthday Party Against Man He Allegedly Believed Was Involved In Murder Of His 23-Year-Old Community Leader Son
When your child is murdered in cold blood, it can change you as a parent. No matter how moral or dedicated to being a positive member of society you are, questioning everything you believed in that’s good is inevitable.
In certain instances, the loss of a child can send someone over the edge. When your son is killed in the same streets that he worked to protect and make better, as a parent all gloves come off.
Former MMA fighter Lumumba Sayers Sr., 46, is accused of casually walking up and shooting 28-year-old Malcolm Watson three times in the head at assassination range in Commerce, Colorado on Aug. 10. (Photo: Showtime)
A former MMA fighter and longtime anti-gun violence advocate allegedly shot and killed a man at his son’s 5-year-old birthday party in a probable retaliation for his son’s murder just a year ago.
Lumumba Sayers Sr., 46, is accused of casually walking up and shooting 28-year-old Malcolm Watson three times in the head at assassination range in Commerce, Colorado, on Aug. 10, an arrest affidavit obtained by 9News said. Watson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Why Did Lumumba Sayers Sr. Shoot and Kill Malcolm Watson?
Sayers Sr. is now charged with first-degree murder and felony menacing for a shooting that is believed to be a possible retaliation for last year’s shooting of Lumumba Sayers Jr. at 28th and Welton streets in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, according to reports.
Sayers Jr., 23, a father of a 2-month-old son, was among the two people fatally shot at around 3:50 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2023.
According to the affidavit, “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.”
Watson’s sister is unwavering in declaring her brother’s innocence and spoke to his character and desire to be a great father and protector of his sisters
“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.
What Did Malcolm Watson Have To Do With Murder of Lumumba Sayers Jr.?
The streets talk when heroes fall, and Watson was believed to have been connected to Tyrell Braxton, the man arrested and charged in Sayers Jr.’s murder, but there is no substantiated connection between the two, according to the outlet.
Braxton, 24, was arrested and charged with murder a month after the tragic 2023 shooting, but the case was later dismissed.
That dismissal and the fact that Sayers Sr. got no closure in the tragedy is what probably sent him into a spiral of depression, desperation and helplessness.
According to ABC 7 Denver, Colorado law seals case records when they are dismissed, but Braxton is still facing a federal charge of illegal possession of ammunition.
Malcolm Watson was believed to have been connected to Tyrell Braxton, the man arrested and charged in Lumumba Sayers Jr.’s murder, but there is no substantiated connection between the two. (ABC News)
Sayers Family Were Positive Members Of The Community: “This Coward Shot My Son”
According to reports, Sayers Sr. founded the Heavy Hands Heavy Hearts boxing gym in Aurora, where his son led programs out of his father’s gym to get kids off the streets and into a positive lifestyle.
Sayers Sr. fought 10 MMA matches between 2009 and 2014, according to ESPN. During his career, he appeared on UFC’s Strikeforce and notched notable wins over opponents such as Justin Guthry and Canaan Grigsby. His record is 6–4.
According to court documents reviewed by the outlet, witnesses saw Sayers Sr. “walk up and shoot the victim in the head at close range.”
Sayers Jr. also founded the “Gloves Up Guns Down: Get Your Heads Up in the Hood movement,” a foundation with a mission to deter young people from violence through structured training and a sense of unity.
“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.
Reports say fellow leaders in the community described Sayers as “in a dark place” after Sayers Jr.’s death.
“When a person goes through something like this, they need ongoing support the grief process, the mourning does not go away,” said Topazz McBride, the owner of the Aurora resource center Rediscovery Through Wellness told the outlet. “People have their own lives, and so people begin to move back to their own sense of normalcy, which didn’t necessarily happen with Lumumba.”
This is a tragic story, and the details are still emerging concerning the connection between the parties involved. Sayers Sr. is due to appear in court on August 15. He’s being held on a $1 million bond.
