Lumumba Sayers Sr., a former mixed martial arts fighter and an anti-gun violence activist whose son was gunned down in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood last year, has now been arrested for murder after allegedly killing a man to avenge his son’s death.
According to an arrest affidavit, Sayers Sr. is accused of shooting a man in the head during a child’s birthday party Saturday evening at Pioneer Park in Commerce City. The victim, identified as Malcolm Watson, is believed to be a friend of the man once believed to have killed Sayers Sr.’s son.
Watson, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene with three gunshot wounds.
Lumumba Sayers Jr., who was also an MMA fighter and anti-gun violence advocate, and another man were killed in a quadruple shooting near the intersection of 28th and Welton streets on Aug. 19, 2023.
The suspect in that case at the time, Tyrell Braxton, was arrested a month later and charged with murder. Court records show the murder case has since been dismissed. By law in Colorado, records are sealed when a case is dismissed. Braxton was still facing a federal charge of illegal possession of ammunition, according to court records.
The arrest affidavit does not detail the alleged relationship between Watson and Braxton, but suggests a connection between the two cases.
“This murder was probably in retaliation or revenge” for Sayers Jr.’s death a year ago, according to a witness account cited in the arrest affidavit.
The affidavit describes the series of events that led up to the shooting, which happened around 5 p.m. Saturday, and what transpired after, according to witness accounts.
According to the affidavit, Watson was at a birthday party at the Pioneer Park waterpark. One witness told police she saw Sayers Sr., who was not in attendance at the party, “walk up and shoot the victim in the head at close range.”
Another witness told police Sayers Sr. had “killed her baby’s daddy on the baby’s birthday,” according to the affidavit.
Witnesses also told officers Sayers Sr. went back to Waton’s body and tried to shoot him with a second gun, but that gun “jammed.” Sayers Sr. then took a set of keys from Watson’s pocket before apparently trying to plant a handgun near Watson’s body.
Tajuana McKinley — the mother of shooting victim Malcolm Watson — banged her fists on the court podium, blaring words against the man suspected in her son’s murder.
The heated hearing marked the first court appearance for 46-year-old Lumumba Sayers Sr., who was officially charged with first-degree murder and two counts of menacing by the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office Thursday morning following the alleged shooting of Watson on Saturday.
“If you let this man out, it’s your fault if guns and bloodshed go on in this community,” McKinley said to 17th Judicial Judge Jeffrey Ruff. “This is not over, by far on any side. This is going to go on, your honor.”
McKinley was eventually escorted from the court room during Sayer’s bond hearing Thursday morning, sharing heated words with the fully packed pews on the defendant’s side.
The victim’s side — also packed to the point of having to extend to an additional courtroom — cried and cheered as McKinley walked away.
Sayers Sr.’s history of anti-violence activism in the community was the main pillar of defense attorney Megan Downing’s argument to lower the suspect’s bail from the $1 million cash-only bond initially set.
Downing added that the affidavit raised many questions, like the 10-20 shots reported despite only four empty cases found near Watson’s body. Also, another man, described to be dressed in tan, was identified as a shooter by a witness.
“While there are a number of questions raised about this case, what is clearly not in question is that you are dealing with an individual in this community who is nothing short of exceptional,” Downing said.
Downing pointed toward a collection of letters that the judge had already received boasting Sayers Sr.’s character and claiming how important he was for anti-violence activism in the community.
“This case is a complex anomaly that I’ve never seen,” Downing continued. “At the end of the day, you have a person very deserving of a meaningful bond who has more substantial ties to the community than frankly most anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Senior Lead Deputy District Attorney Laura Anderson, and multiple family members of Watson, disagreed that the bond should be lowered, claiming that friends and family are fearful of Sayers Sr. continuing an alleged revenge plot.
“He is a man on a vengeance, and a man on a vengeance does not deserve to be a part of our community,” Denesha Stevenson, Watson’s older sister, said. “It was not only a murder, but a murder at a community pool in front of hundreds of children and families.”
“If you let this man out on a lower bond, you, as a judge, you are telling this community that make a couple of slogans, pat a couple of kids on the back, give out some backpacks — and a couple of weeks later, during the process of planning my backpack drive, I could be plotting the murder of another man who had nothing to do with my son’s death,” McKinley told the judge.
Ruff ultimately increased Sayers Sr.’s bond to $5 million cash only.
“The paramount issues in the bonding statute are really twofold,” Ruff said. “The court’s belief that you will return on bond for your hearings and the safety to the community, and the subset of that, the safety to the victims. Those are the factors I have to consider.”
Sayers Sr. is a former MMA fighter who started the Heavy Hands Heavy Hearts boxing gym in Aurora, which aims to steer young people away from violence through structured training and a sense of belonging. He operated a foundation with the same name.
His son, Lumumba Sayers Jr., was also an MMA fighter and was heavily involved in the boxing gym and foundation. Sayers Sr. said his son was a leader in the Denver metro area “Gloves Up, Guns Down” program. Similar organizations exist in cities nationwide.
“He was stopping a lot of the violence here in the community,” Sayers Sr. told Denver7 in the wake of his son’s death. “Putting on boxing matches and stuff and showing these kids that there’s a different way.”
Sayers Sr. lamented the fact that his son’s life was taken by the very form of violence both men worked to prevent.
“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 said in 2023.
A community leader said Sayers Sr. is still “in a dark place” when it comes to his son’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, who owns the Aurora resource center Rediscovery Through Wellness. “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.”
“He was so close to his son, he grieved in a different way because of how he’s been available to community and to other families who’ve lost children to gun violence.”
McBride said she and other community members were on a 2-hour long call Monday morning discussing the arrest of Sayers Sr., and the murder of Watson.
“It was draining, from the standpoint of us having to look at the reality of the state of our community,” she said.
McBride added she and others are now focused on what’s next.
“What’s next is about maintaining peace, but also making sure that we’re taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves because now they’re devastated and prayer for the hearts of everyone that hearts don’t get hardened as a result of this,” McBride said.
She said she plans on putting together an informed trauma response event for leaders and youth in the community on Saturday. She wants the event to bring people together to help process and support one another.
“Everybody has a responsibility right now to to respond in a healthy way, to acknowledge that this pain is there and that there has been an impact, and if we’re not responding, we are doing our community and ourselves an injustice,” she said.
Sayers Sr. is scheduled to next be in court for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 4, at which time prosecutors will present enough evidence to the judge to send the case to trial.
